Minimal helix submanifolds and minimal Riemannian foliations (Q265462)

A submanifold \(M \subset \mathbb R^n\) is called a \textit{helix} with respect to \(\mathbf{d} \in \mathbb R^n\) if the angle \(\theta(p) := \angle \left(T_p M, \mathbf{d} \right)\) between the tangent space and a fixed direction \(\mathbf{d}\) is constant, that is \(\theta(p) = \theta\) for all \(p \in M\). For each point \(p\) denote by \(\mathbf{d}^T\) the projection of \(\mathbf{d}\) onto \(T_p M\). The helix is called \textit{ruled} if the integral trajectories of the tangent unit vector field collinear at each point of \(M\) to the field \(\mathbf{d}^T\) are geodesics of the ambient space (straight lines). A submanifold \(M\) is said to be \textit{full} if it is not contained in a proper hyperplane of \(\mathbb R^n\). In the paper under review, the authors prove that if \(M \subset \mathbb R^n\) is a full minimal ruled helix with respect to \(\mathbf{d} \in \mathbb R^n\), then \(M\) is a cylinder over a minimal submanifold contained in a hyperplane \(H\) orthogonal to \(\mathbf{d}\) (Theorem 1.1). Moreover, in the complex case, the authors drop the requirement of being ruled and prove that if \(M^m \subset \mathbb C^n\) is a full complex submanifold of complex dimension \(m\), and is a helix w.r.t. \(\mathbf{d} \in \mathbb C^n\), then the corresponding angle \(\theta = 0\), and \(M\) is locally an extrinsic product \(M = \mathbb C \times N\), where \(N \subset \mathbb C^{n-1}\) is a complex submanifold (Theorem 1.2). Besides the results described above, the authors classify Riemannian foliations of open subsets with minimal leaves (Theorem 1.4), and show that only helix hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature are either cylinders or an open part of a hyperplane (Theorem 1.5). The proofs of the main results primarily go by direct computation and by using projection and slice methods, developed by the authors in [Monatsh. Math. 157, No. 3, 205--215 (2009; Zbl 1169.53006)] and [Kodai Math. J. 33, No. 2, 192--210 (2010; Zbl 1211.53008)] to study helix submanifolds.