Biharmonic PNMC submanifolds in spheres

Abstract

We obtain several rigidity results for biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields. We classify biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields and with at most two distinct principal curvatures. In particular, we determine all biharmonic surfaces with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$.

Then we investigate, for (not necessarily compact) proper-biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$, their type in the sense of B.-Y. Chen. We prove that (i) a proper-biharmonic submanifold in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ is of 1-type or 2-type if and only if it has constant mean curvature f=1 or f∈(0,1), respectively; and (ii) there are no proper-biharmonic 3-type submanifolds with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$.