The mean curvature of the second fundamental form of a hypersurface (Q846762)

An expression for the first variation of the area functional of the second fundamental form is given for a surface in a semi-Riemannian space. The mean curvature of the second fundamental form of the \(m\)-dimensional surface in a semi-Riemannian manifold is defined. Some characterizations of extrinsic hyperspheres in terms of this curvature are given. For example Theorem 9.1. A Riemannian manifold (of dimension \(m+1\)) is locally flat if and only if the mean curvature of the second fundamental form of every geodesichypersphere is equal to the constant \(m/2r\) (where \(r\) is the radius of the geodesic hypersphere).