Convergent normal form for real hypersurfaces at a generic Levi-degeneracy (Q1741452)

In their seminal paper [Acta Math. 133, 219--271 (1975; Zbl 0302.32015)], \textit{S. S. Chern} and \textit{J. K. Moser} developed a normal form for Levi non-degenerate real-analytic hypersurfaces in complex space, that is, a set of distinguished local holomorphic coordinate charts in the ambient space in which the defining function of the hypersurface satisfies certain normal form conditions. The distinguished coordinates can be achieved by combining infinitely many polynomial mappings as well as by a combination of finitely many geometrically motivated mappings. The second approach establishes the convergence of the former procedure. One of the geometric features revealed by the second approach is a family of invariant curves, called chains. The family of distinguished coordinates is determined up to some action of a finite-dimensional Lie group. Normal forms have become a powerful tool in the study of mappings and invariants of Levi non-degenerate hypersurface type CR manifolds and one would like to have similar tools in the Levi degenerate case. A construction by \textit{M. Kolár} [Math. Res. Lett. 12, No. 5--6, 897--910 (2005; Zbl 1086.32030)], for real-analytic hypersurfaces of finite type in \(\mathbb C^2\) is based on the first approach, using a combination of infinitely many polynomial mappings. Kolář showed that this procedure diverges in certain cases. In the paper under review the authors develop a convergent normal form for real-analytic hypersurfaces in \(\mathbb C^{n+1}\) at a ``generic'' Levi degenerate point. The distinguished coordinates are determined by the restriction of the differential of the coordinate change mapping to the complex tangent space of the hypersurface at the reference point. Each distinguished coordinate chart determines a special curve that generalises the notion of Chern-Moser chain.