Totally skew embeddings of manifolds

Abstract

We study a version of Whitney’s embedding problem in projective geometry: What is the smallest dimension of an affine space that can contain an n-dimensional submanifold without any pairs of parallel or intersecting tangent lines at distinct points? This problem is related to the generalized vector field problem, existence of non-singular bilinear maps, and the immersion problem for real projective spaces. We use these connections and other methods to obtain several specific and general bounds for the desired dimension.