Surfaces with flat normal connection in 4-dimensional space forms

Abstract

Let $N$ be a Riemannian, Lorentzian or neutral $4$-dimensional space form with constant sectional curvature $L_0$. In this paper, noticing the linearly dependent condition, we obtain characterizations of space-like surfaces in $N$ with flat normal connection and parallel normal vector fields. In addition, we obtain a generic characterization of space-like surfaces in $N$ with flat normal connection and $K\equiv L_0$ which do not admit any parallel normal vector fields. For time-like surfaces in $N$ with flat normal connection, we obtain analogous results.