Complete submanifolds with relative nullity in space forms (Q2227506)

Let \(f: M^n \rightarrow N^{n+p}\) be an isometric immersion of the complete Riemannian manifold \(M\) into \(N\). The relative nullity subspace at \(x \in M\) is \[\Delta(x) = \{ X\in T_pM: \alpha(X,Y) = 0\enspace \forall \enspace Y \in T_pM\}\] where \(\alpha\) is the second fundamental form of \(f\). Let \(\nu(x)\) denote the dimension of \(\Delta(x)\). Let \(\nu_0\) denote the minimum of \(\nu\) and set \(\nu_0^\perp = n-\nu_0\). The extrinsic curvature of a tangent two-plane \(\sigma\) in \(M\) is the difference \(K_M(\sigma)-K_N(\sigma)\) of the sectional curvatures of \(M\) and \(N\) respectively. The main results of this paper are as follows: 1. Assume \(M\) is a complete Riemannian manifold isometrically immersed in hyperbolic space. If \(\nu_0 \geq \nu_0^\perp(\nu_0^\perp +1) /2\), then the extrinsic curvature is not bounded away from zero. 2. Assume \(M\) is a complete Riemannian manifold isometrically immersed in hyperbolic space of dimension \(n+p\) and the extrinsic curvature is nonpositive. If \(n \geq 2p^2+3p\), then the extrinsic curvature is not bounded away from zero. 3. Assume \(M\) is a complete Riemannian manifold isometrically immersed in a space form with curvature c, and suppose that there exists a smooth totally geodesic \(k\)-dimensional distribution \(D\) on \(M\) with \(D(x) \subset \Delta(x)\) for all \(x \in M\) such that its orthogonal complement \(D^\perp\) is integrable. Then: (1) If \(c>0\), then \(k=n\) and \(M\) is totally geodesic. (2) If \(c=0\), then \(M\) is a \(k\)-cylinder. (3) If \(c<0\), then the extrinsic curvature of the leaves \(L\) of \(D^\perp\) is bounded by \(\sqrt{-c}\). To prove these results, the authors integrate the Codazzi equations along the relative nullity distribution and express the second fundamental form in terms of the Jacobi tensor of the ambient space.