Isoparametric hypersurfaces in product spaces (Q6044451)

A hypersurface in a Riemannian manifold is called isoparametric if it has constant mean curvature (CMC) as well as its nearby equidistant hypersurfaces, or equivalently, it is a regular level set of an isoparametric function on the ambient manifold. Figuratively an isoparametric hypersurface comes naturally with a family of parallel CMC hypersurfaces. When the ambient manifold has constant sectional curvature, it was proven by \textit{É. Cartan} [Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 17, 177--191 (1938; JFM 64.1361.02)] that the family property ``parallel CMC'' of isoparametric hypersurfaces is equivalent to the single property ``CPC'' (constant principal curvature). Isoparametric hypersurfaces in real space forms have been classified thanks to many contributions, as for example [\textit{Q.-S. Chi}, in: Proceedings of the international consortium of Chinese mathematicians, 2018. Second meeting, Taipei, Taiwan, December 2018. Somerville, MA: International Press. 197--260 (2020; Zbl 1465.53016)]. For general Riemannian manifolds, these two properties are different: there are examples of both non-CPC isoparametric and non-isoparametric CPC hypersurfaces. In this paper, the authors study \(3\)-dimensional isoparametric hypersurfaces in products \(\mathbb{Q}^2_{c_1}\times\mathbb{Q}^2_{c_2}\) of real space forms with different curvatures \(c_1\neq c_2\in\{-1,0,1\}\). Generalizing results by \textit{J. Julio-Batalla} [Differ. Geom. Appl. 60, 1--8 (2018; Zbl 1397.53069)] in \(\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{R}^2\), they characterize the CPC property for these isoparametric hypersurfaces by constancy of the norms of two components of the unit normal vector field. Using this characterization, they completely classify these CPC isoparametric hypersurfaces in \(\mathbb{Q}^2_{c_1}\times\mathbb{Q}^2_{c_2}\). The proof is taken by cleverly combining techniques developed in [\textit{F. Urbano}, Commun. Anal. Geom. 27, No. 6, 1381--1416 (2019; Zbl 1429.53078); Julio-Batalla, loc. cit.; \textit{M. Domínguez-Vázquez} and \textit{J. M. Manzano}, Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa, Cl. Sci. (5) 22, No. 1, 269--285 (2021; Zbl 1470.53058)]. As for investigations of isoparametric hypersurfaces in \(\mathbb{H}^2\times\mathbb{H}^2\), i.e., \(c_1=c_2=-1\), we refer to the papers cited in the introduction of this paper. As for isoparametric hypersurfaces in \(\mathbb{S}^2\times \mathbb{S}^2\), the reviewer and \textit{M. Radeschi} [Math. Ann. 363, No. 1--2, 525--548 (2015; Zbl 1327.53054)] classified their equivalence classes to be the lens spaces \(L(2m,1)\), \(m\geq0\).