Affine focal sets of codimension $2$ submanifolds contained in hyper surfaces

Abstract

In this paper we study the affine focal set, which is the bifurcation set of the affine distance to submanifolds $N^n$ contained in hypersurfaces $M^{n+1}$ of the $(n+2)$-space. We give condition under which this affine focal set is a regular hypersurface and, for curves in $3$-space, we describe its stable singularities. For a given Darboux vector field $\xi$ of the immersion $N\subset M$, one can define the affine metric $g$ and the affine normal plane bundle $\mathcal{A}$. We prove that the $g$-Laplacian of the position vector belongs to $\mathcal{A}$ if and only if $\xi$ is parallel. For umbilic and normally flat immersions, the affine focal set reduces to a single line. Submanifolds contained in hyperplanes or hyperquadrics are always normally flat. For $N$ contained in a hyperplane $L$, we show that $N\subset M$ is umbilic if and only if $N\subset L$ is an affine sphere and the envelope of tangent spaces is a cone. For $M$ hyperquadric, we prove that $N\subset M$ is umbilic if and only if $N$ is contained in a hyperplane. The main result of the paper is a general description of the umbilic and normally flat immersions: Given a hypersurface $f$ and a point $O$ in the $(n+1)$-space, the immersion $(\nu,\nu\cdot(f-O))$, where $\nu$ is the co-normal of $f$, is umbilic and normally flat, and conversely, any umbilic and normally flat immersion is of this type.