Isometric immersions from a Kähler manifold into the quaternionic projective space (Q304509)

In this article the authors consider isometric immersions \(f:(M,J)\rightarrow Q\), where \((M,J)\) is a complex Kähler manifold with complex structure \(J\) and \(Q\) is the quaternion projective space \(\mathbb HP^n\) or its noncompact dual. The manifold \(Q\) is a quaternion Kähler manifold; that is, locally there exist three complex structures, pointwise isomorphic to the purely imaginary quaternions, whose span is a globally defined, parallel, rank-3 subbundle \(\Gamma\) of the vector bundle of endomorphisms of the tangent bundle of \(Q\). Quaternion Kähler manifolds are Einstein and have holonomy contained in \(\mathrm{Sp}(n)\cdot\mathrm{Sp}(1)\). Let \(h\) denote the second fundamental form of the immersion. For each \(x\in M\) let \(\Delta_x=\{Y\in T_xM:h(Y,X)=0\text{ for all }X\in T_xM\}\). The index of relative nullity at \(x\) is the dimension of \(\Delta_x\). Rigidity phenomena occur when the index of relative nullity is positive at all points \(x\) of \(M\). The immersion \(f\) is \textit{pluriminimal} if \(0=h(X,X)+h(JX,JX)\) for all \(X\in T_xM\) and all \(x\in M\). Equivalently, an immersion \(f\) is pluriminimal if and only if the restriction of \(f\) to any holomorphic curve of \(M\) is a minimal immersion. An immersion f is \textit{totally complex} if for every \(x\in M\) there exist a neighborhood \(U\) of \(x\) and a canonical local basis \(\{J_1,J_2,J_3\}\) of \((f_{|U|})^{-1}(\Gamma)\) such that \(J=J_1\) in \(U\) and \(J_i(T_xM)\) is orthogonal to \(T_xM\) for \(i=2,3\). Every totally complex immersion is pluriminimal. In the results below, let \(M\) be complex with complex dimension \(m\), and let \(f\) be an isometric immersion of \(M\) into a variable target. The main results are as follows: Theorem. If \(m>1\) and the index of relative nullity of \(f:M\rightarrow Q\) is everywhere positive, then \(f\) is totally complex. Corollary 1. Let \(M\) be complete. If \(m>1\) and the index of relative nullity of \(f:M\rightarrow\mathbb HP^n\) is everywhere positive, then \(f\) is totally geodesic and \(M=\mathbb CP^m\). The standard imbedding of \(\mathbb CP^n\) into \(\mathbb HP^n\) is totally geodesic and totally complex. Consequently one has the following. Corollary 2. If \(m>1\) and the index of relative nullity of \(f:M\rightarrow\mathbb CP^n\) is everywhere positive, then \(f\) is holomorphic. Moreover, if \(M\) is complete, then \(f\) is totally geodesic and \(M=\mathbb CP^m\).