Generic immersions and totally real embeddings

Abstract

We show that, for a closed orientable n-manifold, with n not congruent to 3 modulo 4, the existence of a CR-regular embedding into complex (n-1)-space ensures the existence of a totally real embedding into complex n-space. This implies that a closed orientable (4k+1)-manifold with non-vanishing Kervaire semi-characteristic possesses no CR-regular embedding into complex 4k-space. We also pay special attention to the cases of CR-regular embeddings of spheres and of simply-connected 5-manifolds.

9 pages; the title has been changed; a mistake in Theorem 5.4 (c) has been corrected