New examples of Willmore submanifolds in the unit sphere via isoparametric functions (Q1759451)

An isometric immersion \(x:M^n\to S^{n+p}\) is called Willmore if it is an extremal submanifold of the Willmore functional \(W(x)=\int_{M^n}(S-nH^2)^{n/2}\text{d}v\), where \(S\) is the norm square of the second fundamental form and \(H\) is the mean curvature. Let \(P_i(0\leq i\leq m)\) be symmetric \(l\times l\)-matrices satisfying \(P_iP_j+P_jP_i=2\delta_{ij}I_{2l}\), which is a so-called symmetric Clifford system on \(\mathbb{R}^{2l}\). A so-called FKM-type isoparametric function has the form \(f=F|_{S^{2l-1}}\), where \(F\) is a polynomial defined on \(\mathbb{R}^{2l}\): \[ F(x)=|x|^4-2\sum_{i=0}^l\langle P_ix,x\rangle^2. \] It can be verified (cf. [\textit{T. E. Cecil}, Lie sphere geometry with applications to submanifolds. Universitext. New York, NY: Springer (2008 Zbl 1134.53001)]) that \[ |\nabla f|^2=16(1-f^2),\quad\triangle f =8(m_2-m_1)-4(2l+2)f, \] where \(m_1=m\), \(m_2=l-m-1\). The authors prove the following theorem (Theorem 1.1). The focal submanifolds \(M_+\) of the FKM-type isoparametric polynomials on \(S^{2l-1}\) are Willmore submanifolds in \(S^{2l-1}\).