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On the Rank Numbers of an Arc
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
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The kth rank number, rankkB, of a differentiable arc B in real projective n-space is the least upper bound of the number of osculating k-spaces of B which meet an (n – k – l)-flat, k = 0, 1, …, n – 1. The number rank0B is called the order of B; cf. 1.1-1.3. It has been conjectured by Peter Scherk that
(0.1)
equality holding if and only if B has the order n; cf. [2, p. 396]. In this paper we prove the following results.
THEOREM 1. If B is a differentiable elementary arc, then (0.1) holds for k = 0, 1, …, n – 1.
THEOREM 2. If B is a differentiable elementary arc and order B > n, then rankkB > (k + 1) (n – k) for k = 1, …, n – 2.
By a theorem of Park [3, p. 38], every differentiable arc contains a subarc of order n. This eliminates the assumption that B is elementary from Theorem 1. We do not know whether it can be dropped from Theorem 2.
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- Copyright © Canadian Mathematical Society 1970