The Taylor expansion of the exponential map and geometric applications (Q740734)

The paper under review is devoted to the Taylor expansion of the exponential map up to order three of a submanifold immersed in \({\mathbb R}^n\) in order to introduce the concept of lateral and frontal deviation. In the case of surfaces in \({\mathbb R}^3\) the directions of extreme lateral and frontal deviation are computed. As an application to contact theory the directions of high contact with hyperspheres are calculated in the case of a surface immersed in \({\mathbb R}^4\). Furthermore the computation of the asymptotic directions of a surface immersed in \({\mathbb R}^n\) is given.