The polynomially convex embedding dimension for real manifolds of dimension $\leq 11$

Abstract: We show that any compact smooth real $n$-dimensional manifold $M$ with $n\leq 11$ can be smoothly embedded into $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$ as a polynomially convex set. In general, there is no such embedding into $\mathbb{C}^n$. This solves a problem by Izzo and Stout for $n\leq 11$. Additionally, we show that the image $\widetilde{M}$ of $M$ in $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$ is stratified totally real. As a consequence, by a result in [12] each continuous complex-valued functions on $\widetilde{M}$ is the uniform limit on $\widetilde{M}$ of holomorphic polynomials in $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$. Our proof is based on the jet transversality theorem and a slight improvement of a perturbation result by the first and the third author.