Construction of non-hyperspherical immersions (Q692750)

In response to a question posed by \textit{L. F. Mello} [Rocky Mt. J. Math. 39, No. 5, 1597--1612 (2009; Zbl 1178.53006)], the author constructs non-hyperspherical immersions of \(\mathbb R^2 \cong \mathbb C\) into \(\mathbb R^4\) with globally defined orthogonal asymptotic lines having isolated inflection points. At first, he observes that for every smooth immersion of \(\mathbb R^2\) into \(\mathbb R^4\) a quadruple \(\{f,g_1,g_2,h\}\) of complex functions can be constructed. The functions \(g_1\) and \(g_2\) determine the immersion's Gauss map,and the functions \(f\) and \(h\) give the coordinates of the complex derivative with respect to a certain basis. Under suitable compatibility assumptions, the converse is true as well, that is, the quadruple \(\{f,g_1,g_2,h\}\) gives rise to an immersion. The author than demonstrates the versatility of this point of view by relating the quadruple \(\{f,g_1,g_2,h\}\) to isothermal immersions in general, and isothermal immersions with special ellipses of curvature. He also gives a formula for the resultant of the two second fundamental forms in terms of the quadruple \(\{f,g_1,g_2,h\}\). Finally, he constructs the mentioned non-hyperspherical immersions. The basic idea is to start with a minimal immersion in \(\mathbb R^3\) and map it, via inverse stereographic projection, into \(\mathbb R^4\). This gives a hyperspherical immersion with associated quadruple \(\{f,g_1,g_2,0\}\). The sought immersion is defined by the data \(\{0,g_1,g_1,h\}\). The general theory guarantees almost all of the desired properties but hypersphericity still needs to be checked for particular examples. This is done in the final section.