Sharp pinching theorems for complete submanifolds in the sphere

We prove that every complete, minimally immersed submanifold $f\: M^n \to \mathbb{S}^{n+p}$ whose second fundamental form satisfies $|A|^2 \le np/(2p-1)$, is either totally geodesic, or (a covering of) a Clifford torus or a Veronese surface in $\mathbb{S}^4$, thereby extending the well-known results by Simons, Lawson and Chern, do Carmo & Kobayashi from compact to complete $M^n$. We also obtain the corresponding result for complete hypersurfaces with nonvanishing constant mean curvature, due to Alencar & do Carmo in the compact case, under the optimal bound on the umbilicity tensor. In dimension $n \le 6$, a pinching theorem for complete higher-codimensional submanifolds with non-vanishing parallel mean curvature is proved, partly generalizing previous work of Santos. Our approach is inspired by the conformal method of Fischer-Colbrie, Shen & Ye and Catino, Mastrolia & Roncoroni.