Virtual immersions and a characterization of symmetric spaces

Abstract

We define virtual immersions, as a generalization of isometric immersions in a pseudo-Riemannian vector space. We show that virtual immersions possess a second fundamental form, which is in general not symmetric. We prove that a manifold admits a virtual immersion with skew-symmetric second fundamental form, if and only if it is a symmetric space, and in this case the virtual immersion is essentially unique.