Extrinsic characterizations of circles in a complex projective space imbedded in a Euclidean space (Q1922165)

A curve on \(S^2\) in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) is a geodesic (a great circle) or a small circle if and only if it is a circle as a curve in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). This gives an extrinsic characterization of circles on \(S^2\) in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). In the present paper, the authors investigate how to characterize circles in \(\mathbb{C} P(c)\) using the imbedding of \(\mathbb{C} P^n(c)\) into \(\mathbb{R}^{n(n+2)}\). A useful tool in their study is the notion of a finite type submanifold as introduced by the first author in [Total mean curvature and submanifolds of finite type. Series in Pure Mathematics 1, World Scientific, Singapore (1984; Zbl 0537.53049)]. A submanifold \(M\) of \(\mathbb{R}^m\) is said to be of finite type if each component of its positition vector \(X:M\to \mathbb{R}^m\) can be written as a finite sum of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian \(\Delta\) on \(M\), i.e., if \(X=X_0+\sum^k_{i=1} X_i\), where \(\Delta X_i=\lambda_i X_i\). The authors prove that a curve \(\gamma\) in \(\mathbb{C} P^n(4)\) is a circle with complex torsion \(\tau_1\neq 0,\pm 1\) if and only if (1) \(F(\gamma)\) is of 3-type in \(\mathbb{R}^{n(n+2)}\), (2) \(\gamma\) lies on some totally geodesic \(\mathbb{C} P^2(4)\) in \(\mathbb{C} P^n(4)\), (3) the first curvature of \(\gamma\) is constant, (4) the first complex torsion \(\tau_2\) of \(\gamma\) is constant but \(-1<\tau \neq 0<1\), and (5) the second complex torsion \(\tau_2\) of \(\gamma\) is zero. The authors also consider separately the cases that \(\tau_1=0,-1,1\).