The relative nullity of complex submanifolds and the gauss map

Abstract

We give a short and geometric proof, based on Jacobi fields, of a theorem of K. Abe that asserts that the relative index of nullity is trivial for complete non-totally geodesic complex projective submanifolds. Using this idea we prove a splitting theorem for complex Euclidean submanifolds with a non-trivial relative index of nullity.