{"@context":["https://w3id.org/fdo/context/v1",{"schema":"https://schema.org/","prov":"http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#","fdo":"https://w3id.org/fdo/vocabulary/"}],"@id":"https://fdo.portal.mardi4nfdi.de/fdo/Q488974","@type":"DigitalObject","kernel":{"@id":"https://fdo.portal.mardi4nfdi.de/fdo/Q488974","digitalObjectType":"https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle","primaryIdentifier":"mardi:Q488974","kernelVersion":"v1","immutable":true,"modified":"2026-03-26T10:30:54Z"},"profile":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ScholarlyArticle","@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q488974","name":"Isoparametric functions on exotic spheres","headline":"Isoparametric functions on exotic spheres","description":"scientific article; zbMATH DE number 6391246","url":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q488974","datePublished":"2015-01-27","author":[{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q477265"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q355073"}],"publisher":[{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q165833"}],"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","propertyID":"doi","value":"10.1016/J.AIM.2014.12.020","url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AIM.2014.12.020"},"sameAs":["https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AIM.2014.12.020"],"comment":"This paper is an extension of a previous work belonging to the second author and to \\textit{J. Ge} and \\textit{Z. Tang} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 683, 161--180 (2013; Zbl 1279.53057)], work which was widely reviewed in Zbl Math. The authors establish a lot of results about existence and non-existence of isoparametric functions on exotic spheres and Eells-Kuiper projective planes. To enunciate the main results from this category recall that a smooth function \\(f\\) on a smooth manifold \\(N\\) is called a \\textit{Morse-Bott function} or a \\textit{generalized Morse function} if :(i) the critical set defined by the equation \\(df=0\\) consists of a family of smooth submanifolds, the so-called critical submanifolds; (ii) the Hessian \\(H_f\\) is a non-degenerate quadratic form in the normal direction of each critical submanifold to \\(N\\).  {Theorem 1.1} (A fundamental construction). Let \\(N\\) be a closed connected smooth manifold and \\(f\\) a Morse-Bott function on \\(N\\) with critical set \\(C(f)=M_{+}\\cup M_{-}\\), where \\(M_{+}\\) and \\(M_{-}\\) are both closed connected submanifolds of codimensions more than 1. Then there exists a metric \\(g\\) on \\(N\\) such that \\(f\\) is an isoparametric function. Moreover, the metric can be chosen so that the critical submanifolds \\(M_{+}\\) and \\(M_{-}\\) are both totally geodesic.  {Corollary 1.1}. Every homotopy \\(n\\)-sphere with \\(n>4\\) admits a metric and an isoparametric function with 2 points as the focal set.  The authors remark that the result of Corollary 1.1 is in strong contrast to the classification of cohomogenity-one actions on homotopy spheres [\\textit{E. Straume}, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 569, 93 p. (1996; Zbl 0854.57033)].  {Proposition 1.1}. Let \\(\\Sigma ^n\\) be a homotopy sphere which admits a metric \\(g\\) and an isoparametric function \\(f\\) with 2 points as the focal set. Suppose that the level hypersurfaces are all totally umbilical. Then \\(\\Sigma^n\\) is diffeomorphic to \\(S^n\\).  {Theorem 1.2.} Every odd-dimensional exotic sphere admits no totally isoparametric functions with 2 points as the focal set.  {Proposition 3.2.} For \\(m=4\\) or 8, each Eells-Kuiper projective plane \\(M^{2m}\\) admits a metric and an isoparametric function such that one component of the focal set is a single point and the other is diffeomorphic to \\(S^m\\).  As an application, the authors give the following existence theorem which improves a beautiful result of \\textit{L. Bérard Bergery} [Ann. Inst. Fourier 27, No. 1, 231--249 (1977; Zbl 0309.53038)].     {Theorem 5.1.} On any homotopy sphere \\(\\Sigma^{2n}\\) in \\(2\\Theta_{2n}\\), \\(n\\geq 3\\), there exists a Riemannian metric so that it possesses the \\(\\mathrm{SC}^p\\)-property at two points, say \\(m_{+} \\) and \\(m_{-}\\). Furthermore under the same metric, there exists an isoparametric function \\(f\\) on \\(\\Sigma^{2n}\\) with focal set \\(C(f)=\\{m_{+},m_{-}\\}\\). The later property means that \\(\\Sigma^{2n}\\) is locally harmonic at both points \\(m_{+}\\) and \\(m_{-}\\).    Here, \\(\\Theta_l\\) denotes the group of oriented homotopy \\(l\\)-spheres up to relation \\(h\\)-cobordant, and  a Riemannian manifold \\((M,g)\\) is said to have the \\(\\mathrm{SC}^p\\)-property at a point \\(p\\in M\\) if all geodesics emanating from \\(p\\) are simply closed geodesics with the same length.    In connection with Proposition 3.2 the authors make the following remark: ``Very recently, \\textit{Z. Tang} and \\textit{W. Zhang} [Adv. Math. 254, 41--48 (2014; Zbl 1290.51005)] solved a problem of Berard-Bergery and Besse. That is, they showed that every Eells-Kuiper quaternionic projective plane carries a Riemannian metric with the \\(\\mathrm{SC}^p\\) property for A certain point \\(p\\). We do not know how to improve our Proposition 3.2. For instance, we do not know whether there is a metric on every Eells-Kuiper quaternionic projective plane with not only the property in Proposition 3.2, but also the \\(\\mathrm{SC}^p\\)-property.''","citation":[{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q3445255"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1219069"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q4169382"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q355071"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2473615"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q3729588"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q919520"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q4848234"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1130873"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q5538403"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2861477"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q500095"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q4129462"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2525939"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2625668"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1078815"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1135042"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q3847410"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q5294033"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1942688"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q483237"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q5516020"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1141938"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q773991"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q4873914"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q355075"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2445950"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q4510900"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q2538986"},{"@id":"https://portal.mardi4nfdi.de/entity/Q1099421"}]},"provenance":{"prov:generatedAtTime":"2026-03-26T10:30:54Z","prov:wasAttributedTo":"MaRDI Knowledge Graph"}}