Introducing totally nonparallel immersions

. In analogy with the totally skew embeddings studied by Ghomi and Tabachnikov, we find that totally nonparallel immersions are related to the generalized vector field problem, the immersion problem for real projective spaces, and nonsingular symmetric bilinear maps. Our study of totally nonparallel immersions follows a recent trend of studying conditions which manifest on the configuration space

F_{k} (M)

of k-tuples of distinct points of

M

; for example, k-regular embeddings, k-skew embeddings, k-neighborly embeddings, etc. Typically, a map satisfying one of these configuration space conditions induces some

S_{k}

-equivariant map on the configuration space

F_{k} (M)

(or on a bundle thereof) and obstructions can be computed using Stiefel-Whitney classes. However, the existence problem for such conditions is relatively unstudied. Our main result is a Whitney-type theorem: every

n

-manifold

M

admits a totally nonparallel immersion into

m a t h b b R^{4 n - 1}

, one dimension less than given by genericity. We begin by studying the local problem, which requires a thorough understanding of the space of nonsingular symmetric bilinear maps, after which the main theorem is established using the removal-of-singularities h-principle technique due to Gromov and Eliashberg. When combined with a recent non-immersion theorem of Davis, we obtain the exact value

T N (m a t h b b R P^{n}) = 4 n - 1

when

n

is a power of 2. This is the first optimal-dimension result for any closed manifold

M e q S^{1}

, for any of the recently-studied configuration space conditions.

Review text

In this paper the author defines totally nonparallel immersions as a generalization of skew loops introduced by \textit{B. Segre} in [Rend. Semin. Mat. Fis. Milano 38, 256--263 (1968; Zbl 0186.55001)]. The author's abstract: ``An immersion of a smooth \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M \to \mathbb{R}^q\) is called \textit{totally nonparallel} if, for every distinct \(x, y \in M\), the tangent spaces at \(f(x)\) and \(f(y)\) contain no parallel lines; equivalently, they span a \(2n\)-dimensional space. Given a manifold \(M\), we seek the minimum dimension \(\text{TN}(M)\) such that there exists a totally nonparallel immersion \(M \to \mathbb{R}^{\text{TN}(M)}\). In analogy with the totally skew embeddings studied by \textit{M. Ghomi} and \textit{S. Tabachnikov} [Math. Z. 258, No. 3, 499--512 (2008; Zbl 1140.53003)], we find that totally nonparallel immersions are related to the generalized vector field problem, the immersion and embedding problems for real projective spaces, and nonsingular symmetric bilinear maps. Our study of totally nonparallel immersions follows a recent trend of studying conditions which manifest on the configuration space \(F_k(M)\) of \(k\)-tuples of distinct points of \(M\); for example, \(k\)-regular embeddings, \(k\)-skew embeddings, \(k\)-neighborly embeddings, and several others. Typically, a map satisfying one of these configuration space conditions induces some \(S_k\)-equivariant map on the configuration space \(F_k(M)\) (or on a bundle thereof) and obstructions can be computed in the form of Stiefel-Whitney classes. However, the existence problem for such conditions is relatively unstudied. Our main result is a Whitney-type theorem: every smooth \(n\)-manifold \(M\) admits a totally nonparallel immersion into \(\mathbb{R}^{4n - 1}\), one dimension less than given by genericity. We begin by studying the local problem, which requires a thorough understanding of the space of nonsingular symmetric bilinear maps, after which the main theorem is established using the removal-of-singularities \(h\)-principle technique due to \textit{M. L. Gromov} and \textit{Ya. M. Ehliashberg} [Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 35, 600--626 (1971; Zbl 0221.58009)]. When combined with a recent non-immersion theorem of \textit{D. M. Davis} [Bol. Soc. Mat. Mex., III. Ser. 26, No. 2, 765--773 (2020; Zbl 1441.55012)], we obtain the exact value \(\text{TN}(\mathbb{RP}^n) = 4n - 1\) when \(n\) is a power of 2. This is the first optimal-dimension result for any closed manifold \(M\) besides \(S^1\), for any of the recently-studied configuration space conditions.

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