Normal and osculating maps for submanifolds of RN
SynopsisLet Mn be a manifold supposed “nicely curved” isometrically immersed in ℝn+p. Starting from a generalised Gauss map associated to the splitting of the normal bundle defined from the values of the fundamental forms of M of order k (k ≧ 0), we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the map to be totally geodesic and harmonic . For k = 0 is the classical Gauss map and our formula reduces to Ruh–Vilm's formula with a more precise formulation due to the consideration of the splitting of the normal bundle.We also give necessary conditions for M, supposed complete, to admit an isometric immersion with . This theorem generalises a theorem of Vilms on the manifolds with second fundamental forms parallel (case k = 0). The result is interesting as the class of manifolds satisfying the condition is larger than the class of manifolds satisfying .