Symmetries of cross caps (Q6155670)

Cross caps, also known as Whitney's umbrellas, are the only singular points of stable maps of surfaces to 3-manifolds and have been studied by a great number of geometers. One can cite [\textit{J. W. Bruce} and \textit{J. M. West}, Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 123, No. 1, 19--39 (1998; Zbl 1006.53005), \textit{T. Fukui} and \textit{M. Hasegawa}, J. Singul. 4, 35--67 (2012; Zbl 1292.53005), \textit{M. Hasegawa} et al., Sel. Math., New Ser. 20, No. 3, 769--785 (2014; Zbl 1298.57024) and \textit{R. Garcia} et al., Tôhoku Math. J. (2) 52, No. 2, 163--172 (2000; Zbl 0973.37012)] just to name a few. Using Bruce-West's normal form, the authors define two invariants on cross cap singular points which characterize symmetries on them. If \(f:U\subset\mathbb{R}^2\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^3\) is a \(C^{\infty}\)-map having a cross cap at \(p\in U\), there are suitable changes of coordinates that take \(f\) to \[f(u,v)=(u,uv+b(v),a(u,v)),\] where \(b(0)=b^{\prime}(0)=b^{\prime\prime}(0)=0\), \(a(0,0)=a_u(0,0)=a_{v}(0,0)\) and \(a_{vv}(0,0)>0\). This coordinate system \((u,v)\) is called a Bruce-West coordinate system. There are papers studying the geometric invariance of the coefficients of the Maclaurin series of \(a(u,v)\) and \(b(v)\). However, these functions are determined up to additions of flat functions in general. Here, the authors prove a local rigidity theorem for Bruce-West's coordinates, which removes these ambiguities by flat functions. They call \(a(u,v)\) the first characteristic function and \(b(v)\) the second characteristic function, which can be considered as geometric invariants of positive congruence classes on cross cap germs. Finally, it is proven that these invariants can be defined by simply connected complete Riemannian 3-manifolds of constant sectional curvature.