Smooth genereralized quadrangles and isoparametric hypersurfaces of Clifford type (Q4779996)

A closed hypersurface \(M^s\subset\mathbb S^{s+1}\) is called isoparametric if its principal curvatures are constant. A fundamental result by \textit{H.-F. Münzner} [Math. Ann. 256, 215--232 (1981; Zbl 0438.53050)] says that the number of distinct principal curvatures is \(g=1,2,3,4,6\), and all isoparametric hypersurfaces with \(g\leq 3\) are known. For \(g=4\), \textit{D. Ferus, H. Karcher} and \textit{H.-F. Münzner} [Math. Z. 177, 479--502 (1981; Zbl 0443.53037)] gave a general construction of such hypersurfaces using representations of Clifford algebras. Associated to any isoparametric hypersurface \(M\) is a certain metric graph \(\Gamma_M\), whose edges are those great circle segments of length \(\pi/g\) in \(\mathbb S^{s+1}\) which are normal to \(M\) and whose endpoints are focal points. As \(M\) separates the sphere into two pieces, this graph is bipartite in a natural way. Furthermore, it is not difficult to show that \(\Gamma_M\) has diameter \(\pi\). If \(\Gamma_M\) is in addition CAT\((1)\), i.e. if any two points \(x,y\in\Gamma_M\) with distance less than \(\pi\) are joined by a unique geodesic path in the graph, then \(\Gamma_M\) is a generalized \(g\)-gon, i.e. a spherical building of rank \(2\). For \(g\leq 3\), one can show (even without using the classification) that this additional CAT\((1)\)-condition is satisfied, see \textit{N. Knarr} and \textit{L. Kramer} [Geom. Dedicata 58, No. 2, 193--202 (1995; Zbl 0839.53044)]. \textit{G. Thorbergsson} [Duke Math. J. 67, No.~3, 627--632 (1992; Zbl 0765.51015)] proved that for the isoparametric hypersurfaces of Clifford type, \(\Gamma_M\) is indeed a generalized quadrangle; a different proof was given later by the reviewer [Geom. Dedicata 79, No. 3, 321--339 (2000; Zbl 0958.51006)]. In the present setting, the two vertex sets \(V_\pm\Gamma_M\) of the bipartite graph are smooth submanifolds in \(\mathbb S^{s+1}\), namely the focal manifolds \(M_\pm\) of \(M\). It is thus natural to ask if the map \(f\) that associates to any two vertices \(x,y\) at graph-theoretic distance \(d_{\Gamma_M}(x,y)=\pi (g-1)/g\) the unique vertex \(z=f(x,y)\) at distance \(\pi/g\) from \(x\) on the geodesic path from \(x\) to \(y\) is continuous or even smooth. If this is the case, \(\Gamma_M\) is called a topological (resp. a smooth) generalized \(g\)-gon. The fact that the generalized quadrangles arising from isoparametric hypersurfaces of Clifford type are smooth was claimed in [Zbl 0765.51015] (the continuity is easy to see). In the present paper, the author gives a detailed, clean proof of this, based on algebraic considerations and differential topology. Meanwhile, he managed to prove more generally that for any isoparametric hypersurface with \(g=4\) distinct principal curvatures, \(\Gamma_M\) is a smooth generalized quadrangle [the author, J. Reine Angew. Math. 554, 1--17 (2003; Zbl 1215.53053)]. This had been conjectured for a long time, but no correct proof had been given before.