3-dimensional isotropic submanifolds of spheres (Q2276771)

An isometric immersion x: \(M\to N\) into a Riemannian manifold N is said to be isotropic, if there exists a function \(\lambda\) : \(M\to {\mathbb{R}}\) such that the second fundamental form h of x satisfies \(\| h(v,v)\| =\lambda (p)\cdot \| v\|^ 2\) for every \(p\in M\) and \(v\in T_ pM\). The author investigates the case where M is 3-dimensional and N is some Euclidean sphere \(S^ n\). He shows: a) M has constant curvature, if x: \(M\to S^ n\) is minimal. b) If \(\lambda =const\). and if the dimension of the first normal space is \(\geq 3\) everywhere, then x is totally umbilical or it is a local isometry into a distinguished 3-dimensional submanifold of some sphere \(S^ 7\subset S^ n\).