Abstract
Let M be an n-dimensional submanifold in the simply connected space form F n+p(c) with c + H 2 > 0, where H is the mean curvature of M. We verify that if M n(n ≥ 3) is an oriented compact submanifold with parallel mean curvature and its Ricci curvature satisfies Ric M ≥ (n − 2)(c + H 2), then M is either a totally umbilic sphere, a Clifford hypersurface in an (n + 1)-sphere with n = even, or \({\mathbb{C}P^{2} \left(\frac{4}{3}(c + H^{2})\right) {\rm in} S^{7} \left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{c + H^{2}}}\right)}\). In particular, if Ric M > (n − 2)(c + H 2), then M is a totally umbilic sphere. We then prove that if M n(n ≥ 4) is a compact submanifold in F n+p(c) with c ≥ 0, and if Ric M > (n − 2)(c + H 2), then M is homeomorphic to a sphere. It should be emphasized that our pinching conditions above are sharp. Finally, we obtain a differentiable sphere theorem for submanifolds with positive Ricci curvature.
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Research supported by the NSFC, Grant No. 11071211; the Trans-Century Training Programme Foundation for Talents by the Ministry of Education of China.
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Xu, HW., Gu, JR. Geometric, topological and differentiable rigidity of submanifolds in space forms. Geom. Funct. Anal. 23, 1684–1703 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00039-013-0231-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00039-013-0231-x