Partial tubes about immersed manifolds (Q1900011)

Let \(f : M \to \mathbb{R}^n\) be a smooth immersion and \(N(f)\) the total space of the normal bundle of \(f\). Let \(B(f) \subset N(f)\) be a smooth subbundle with fibre \(S\), where (i) \(S\) is a smooth submanifold of \(\mathbb{R}^{\text{codim }M}\), (ii) \(B(f)\) does not contain any focal points of \(f\), and (iii) \(B(f)\) is invariant under parallel transport along any curve in \(M\). Then \(B(f)\) is a smooth manifold naturally immersed in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), called a partial tube about \(f\). Typical examples are so- called spherical partial tubes, in particular \(\varepsilon\)-tubes with \(\varepsilon\) small enough to avoid the focal set of \(f\). Other examples include parallel immersions (\(S\) being a single point), product immersions, and isoparametric submanifolds, which can be viewed as partial tubes about the focal manifold of an isoparametric system of \(\mathbb{R}^n\). The authors discuss the properties of spherical partial tubes inherited from their base manifold. Furthermore, the question of what partial tubes can exist about a given \(f\) is addressed via the notion of ``push-out regions'' \(\Omega (f)\) which form a generalization of the space of parallel immersions. As one result they obtain that for a partial tube \(g : B(f) \to \mathbb{R}^n\) about \(f\) with type fibre \(S\), \(N(g)\) has trivial holonomy group if both \(N(f)\) and \(N(S)\) have trivial holonomy group. In this case, the authors construct examples for which the space of parallel immersions to \(f\), identified with the push-out region \(\Omega (f)\), has ``many'' connected components. These examples are to be seen in connection with an upper bound on the number of path components of \(\Omega (f)\) conjectured by the first author and \textit{Z. Şentürk} in [The space of immersions parallel to a given immersion, J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 50, No. 2, 404-416 (1994; Zbl 0807.53042)].