On the structure of submanifolds with degenerate Gauss maps (Q5948684)

The authors study \(n\)-dimensional submanifolds \(X\) of the projective space \(P^N(\mathbb{C})\) from the point of view of degeneration of their Gauss mapping \(\gamma:X\to G(n,N)\), \(\gamma(x)\) stands for the tangent space to \(X\) at \(x\). Three basic types of submanifolds: cones, tangentially degenerate hypersurfaces and torsal submanifolds are of an importance. The authors prove that a tangentially degenerate submanifold that does not belong to one of the basic types is foliated into submanifolds of basic types. Next, they introduce irreducible, reducible and completely reducible tangentially degenerate submanifolds and prove that cones and tangentially degenerate hypersurfaces are irreducible, torsal submanifolds are completely reducible while all other tangentially degenerate submanifolds not belonging to basic types are reducible. The paper contains instructive examples of submanifolds with degenerate Gauss map.