Symmetric submanifolds of Riemannian symmetric spaces and symmetric R-spaces (Q5465271)

A submanifold \(M\) of a Riemannian manifold \(\overline{M}\) is called symmetric if at each point \(p \in M\) there exists an involutive isometry \(t_p\) of \(\overline{M}\) with \(t_p(p) = p\), \(t_p(M) = M\), \((t_p)_*X = -X\) for all \(X \in T_pM\) and \((t_p)_*\xi = \xi\) for all \(\xi \in T_p^\perp M\). In the present paper the author gives a survey about the classification problem of symmetric submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces. The first of the two main parts of the article deals with Naitoh's result relating the classification problem of symmetric submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces to certain Grassmann geometries. One of these Grassmann geometries is closely related to symmetric real flag manifolds. In the second part of the survey the author describes this particular Grassmann geometry in more detail, and how it can be used to obtain a complete classification of symmetric submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces. The classification was obtained in joint work with \textit{J. Berndt, J.-H. Eschenburg} and \textit{H. Naitoh} and is published in [Math. Ann. 332, No. 4, 721--737 (2005; Zbl 1090.53051)]. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1062.53001].