Euclidean submanifolds with conformal canonical vector field

Abstract

The position vector field x is the most elementary and natural geometric object on a Euclidean submanifold $M$. The position vector field plays very important roles in mathematics as well as in physics. Similarly, the tangential component x^T of the position vector field is the most natural vector field tangent to the Euclidean submanifold $M$. We simply call the vector field x^T the \textit{canonical vector field} of the Euclidean submanifold M. In earlier articles, we investigated Euclidean submanifolds whose canonical vector fields are concurrent, concircular, or torse-forming. In this article we study Euclidean submanifolds with conformal canonical vector field. In particular, we characterize such submanifolds. Several applications are also given. In the last section we present three global results on complete Euclidean submanifolds with conformal canonical vector field.