Isometric immersions of hypersurfaces in 4-dimensional manifolds via spinors (Q960873)

The article develops spinor representations for \(3\)-dimensional Riemannian manifolds isometrically immersed into \(4\)-dimensional space forms and into products of \(3\)-dimensional space forms with \(\mathbb R\). The approach of the authors starts with \textit{C. Bär}'s viewpoint of the spinor representation [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 16, No.6, 573--596 (1998; Zbl 0921.58065] in which the restriction of a Killing spinor or a parallel spinor on an \(n\)-dimensional manifold to a hypersurface yields spinorial Weierstrass data on the hypersurface. If the target manifold is a hyperbolic space, then methods from \textit{B. Morel}, [Proceedings of the seminar on spectral theory and geometry. 2004--2005. St. Martin d'Hères: Université de Grenoble I, Institut Fourier. Séminaire de Théorie Spectrale et Géométrie 23, 131-144 (2005; Zbl 1106.53004)] are helpful. Results from \textit{B. Daniel} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 361, No.~12, 6255--6282 (2009; Zbl 1213.53075)] and [Roth PhD thesis, Nancy (2006)] are then used to deal with products. The spinorial data reflect the first derivative of the immersion map. It is thus natural that some integrability condition will appear, the subject of main results in subsection 3.2. This integrability condition leads to a nice application in section 5, namely that \(3\)-dimensional nil-manifolds, sol-manifolds and manifolds with \(PSL_2(R)\)-geometry cannot be isometrically immersed into \(\mathbb R^4\), even not locally. The mathematics of the article is very well worked out. However, the article does not contain a comprehensive overview over related literature. The author cited in the article under review as ``N. Schmidt'' should be ``N. Schmitt''. As earlier publications (of other authors) neglected important literature as well, we add some references here for historically interested readers in the hope to clarify a bit. The spinorial representation of surfaces in \(\mathbb R^3\) goes back at least to the work of Kenmotsu, Abresch and a collaboration of R. Kusner and N. Schmitt. Kenmotsu discussed such a representation in [\textit{K. Kenmotsu}, Math. Ann. 245, 89--99 (1979; Zbl 0402.53002)]. However it seems that this representation was not widely-spread afterwards. A similar representation was derived in the 1990's, attracting a lot of interest. The first written references for this new approach are --- to the knowledge of the reviewer --- the thesis of \textit{N. Schmitt} (University of Amherst (1993)), followed by two versions of a preprint [\url{arXiv:dg-ga/9512003}, \url{arXiv:dg-ga/9610005}] in collaboration with his PhD advisor R. Kusner, see also the comments on page 3 of [\url{arXiv:dg-ga/9512003}]. It remains unclear to the reviewer how much influence came from a talk by Abresch in Luminy in 1989 which was never published. Spinorial Weierstrass representations were also published in the work by \textit{A. I. Bobenko} [Harmonic maps and integrable systems. Based on conference, held at Leeds, GB, May 1992. Braunschweig: Vieweg. Aspects Math. E23, 83--127 (1994; Zbl 0841.53003)] and by \textit{B. G. Taimanov} and \textit{I. A. Konopelchenko} [J. Phys. A, Math. Gen. 29, No.~6, 1261--1265 (1996; Zbl 0911.53007)]. The spinorial Weierstrass representation led in particular to the quaternionic analysis on Riemann surfaces by \textit{F. Pinkall, U. Pedit} and coauthors, see [Doc. Math., J. DMV, Extra Vol. ICM Berlin 1998, vol. II, 389--400 (1998; Zbl 0910.53042)] and \textit{D. Ferus, K. Leschke, F. Pedit, U. Pinkall}, [Invent. Math. 146, No.~3, 507--593 (2001; Zbl 1038.53046)] providing a spinorial Weierstrass representation in \(S^4\) and thus in \(\mathbb R^4\). Spinorial Weierstrass representations were then generalized under the name Kenmotsu type representations for surfaces in hyperbolic \(3\)-space \textit{R. Aiyama, K. Akutagawa}, [J. Math. Soc. Japan 52, No.~4, 877--898 (2000; Zbl 0995.53047)] and anti-de Sitter 3-space \textit{R. Aiyama, K. Akutagawa, Y. H. Wan}, [Tohoku Math. J., II. Ser. 52, No.~3, 415--429 (2000; Zbl 0978.53106)]. For more recent generalizations by Morel, Hijazi and Lawn we refer to the article under review.