Mean curvature of extrinsic spheres in submanifolds of real space forms (Q704954)

Let \(\mathbb{K}^n(b)\) be an \(n\)-dimensional real space form of constant curvature \(b\) and \(P\subset\mathbb{K}^n(b)\) a submanifold. The authors introduce ``extrinsic spheres'' \(D_R(p)\subset P\) about a point \(p\in P\) and with small radius \(R\) by intersecting \(P\) with the geodesic sphere \(\subset\mathbb{K}^n(b)\) about \(p\) and with radius \(R\). These extrinsic spheres are different from the ones occuring elsewhere in the geometry of submanifolds. The main result gives a lower bound for the length of the mean curvature vector of extrinic spheres when considered as submanifolds of \(\mathbb{K}^n(b)\). In this lower bound are involved \(R\) and the second fundamental form of \(P\). If the lower bound is sharp for all sufficiently small extrinsic spheres about \(p\), then a neighbourhood of \(P\) about \(p\) is totally geodesic. In a corollary the result is specialized to totally umbilical \(P\); but in this case a better result can be derived by elementary geometric considerations.