Isometric realization of cross caps as formal power series and its applications (Q2631782)

Singular points of a semi-definite metric are the points where the metric is not positive definite. An interesting class of semi-definite metrics on surfaces is called Whitney metrics. Pullback metrics from the singular surface called cross-cap are typical examples of Whitney metrics. A key question of the area is whether each singular point of a Whitney metric can be realized locally as a cross cap. The paper under review, while it does not answer this question, studies the ``formal power series approximation'' of this problem. The authors construct all isometric realizations of a given Whitney metric germ as a formal power series. The paper presents the coefficients of this formal power series \(\{\alpha_{i,j}\}_{i+j\geq 2}\) as a complete invariant for the infinitesimal isometry class of a real analytic Whitney metric germ.