The main purpose of these lecture notes is to provide a concise introduction to Lie groups, Lie algebras, and isometric and adjoint actions, aiming mostly at advanced undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, the connection between such classic theories and the research area of the first author is explored. Namely, generalizations to isoparametric submanifolds, polar actions and singular Riemannian foliations with sections (s.r.f.s.) are mentioned. The first chapters cover basic concepts, giving results on adjoint representation, closed subgroups, bi-invariant metrics, Killing forms and splitting in simple ideals. In the following chapters, proper and isometric actions are recalled together with adjoint action and foliations, mostly concerning the Weyl group, normal slices and Dynkin diagrams. A special focus is given to maximal tori and roots of compact Lie groups, exploring its connection with isoparametric submanifolds and polar actions. Furthermore, in the last chapter, a survey on recent research results on s.r.f.s. is given.
In this revised version, more details about fiber bundles, proper and isometric actions are explored, and further exercises and examples were added. It also features new sections with examples of singular Riemannian foliations constructed with surgery and suspension of homomorphisms. This is still a preliminary version and we expect to improve it in the future. We would be grateful for any kind of suggestions.
Due to Janet-Cartan's theorem, any analytic Riemannian manifolds can be locally isometrically embedded into a sufficiently high dimensional Euclidean space. However, for an individual Riemannian manifold (M,g), it is in general hard to determine the least dimensional Euclidean space into which (M,g) can be locally isometrically embedded, even in the case where (M,g) is homogeneous. In this paper, when the space (M,g) is locally isometric to a three-dimensional Lie group equipped with a left-invariant Riemannian metric, we classify all such spaces that can be locally isometrically embedded into…
We characterize the universal covering of connected analytic pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which admit a non-trivial and isometric action of the simple Lie group $SL(3,\mathbb{R})$ with a dense orbit preserving a finite volume. If such manifold is also weakly irreducible we prove that $M$ is isometric to, or a quotient space of, a simple Lie group containing $SL(3,\mathbb{R})$.
Let $M$ be a finite volume analytic pseudo-Riemannian manifold that admits an isometric $G$-action with a dense orbit, where $G$ is a connected non-compact simple Lie group. For low-dimensional $M$, i.e. $\dim(M) < 2\dim(G)$, when the normal bundle to the $G$-orbits is non-integrable and for suitable conditions, we prove that $M$ has a $G$-invariant metric which is locally isometric to a Lie group with a bi-invariant metric (local rigidity theorem). The latter does not require $M$ to be complete as in previous works. We also prove a general result showing that $M$ is, up to a finite covering, …
We give a sufficient condition for isometric actions to have the congruency of orbits, that is, all orbits are isometrically congruent to each other. As applications, we give simple and unified proofs for some known congruence results, and also provide new examples of isometric actions on symmetric spaces of noncompact type which have the congruency of orbits.
In this work, we study the Willmore submanifolds in a closed connected Riemannian manifold which are orbits for the isometric action of a compact connected Lie group. We call them homogeneous Willmore submanifolds or Willmore orbits. The criteria for these special Willmore submanifolds is much easier than the general theory which requires a complicated Euler-Lagrange equation. Our main theorem claims, when the orbit type stratification for the group action satisfies certain conditions, then we can find a Willmore orbit in each stratified subset. Some classical examples of special importance, l…
On the ground of origins of the theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, their (co)adjoint representations, and the Pontryagin maximum principle for the time-optimal problem are given an independent foundation for methods of geodesic vector field to search for normal geodesics of left-invariant (sub-)Finsler metrics on Lie groups and to look for the corresponding locally optimal controls in (sub-)Riemannian case, as well as some their applications.
This note is concerned with the geometric classification of connected Lie groups of dimension three or less, endowed with left-invariant Riemannian metrics. On the one hand, assembling results from the literature, we give a review of the complete classification of such groups up to quasi-isometries and we compare the quasi-isometric classification with the bi-Lipschitz classification. On the other hand, we study the problem whether two quasi-isometrically equivalent Lie groups may be made isometric if equipped with suitable left-invariant Riemannian metrics. We show that this is the case for t…
We study the modular class of $Q$-manifolds, and in particular of negatively graded Lie $\infty$-algebroid. We show the equivalence of several descriptions of those classes, that it matches the classes introduced by various authors and that the notion is homotopy invariant. In the process, the adjoint and coadjoint actions up to homotopy of a Lie $\infty$-algebroid are spelled out. We also wrote down explicitly some dualities, e.g. between representations up to homotopies of Lie $\infty$-algebroids and their $Q$-manifold equivalent, which we hope to be of use for future reference.
Let $G_1$ and $G_2$ be Lie groups furnished with bi-invariant metrics and $f:G_1\rightarrow G_2$ be a Lie group homomorphism which is also a minimal isometric immersion. If $G_1$ is compact and connected, we prove that either $G_1$ is isometric to a flat torus or $f$ is unstable as a harmonic map. We also apply this result to the case in which $f$ is the inclusion of a compact, connected Lie subgroup of a Lie group, as well as to construct several examples of unstable harmonic maps into the orthogonal group.
Let $G$ be a non-compact simple Lie group with Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$. Denote with $m(\mathfrak{g})$ the dimension of the smallest non-trivial $\mathfrak{g}$-module with an invariant non-degenerate symmetric bilinear form. For an irreducible finite volume pseudo-Riemannian analytic manifold $M$ it is observed that $\dim(M) \geq \dim(G) + m(\mathfrak{g})$ when $M$ admits an isometric $G$-action with a dense orbit. The Main Theorem considers the case $G = \widetilde{\mathrm{SO}}_0(p,q)$ providing an explicit description of $M$ when the bound is achieved. In such case, $M$ is (up to a finite …
The goal of this paper is to investigate which one of thenon-isometric left invariant Lorentz metrics on 4-dimensional nilpotent Lie groups $H_3 \times {\Bbb R}$ and $G_4$ satisfy in Ricci Soliton equation. Among the left-invariant Lorentzian metrics on $H_3 \times {\Bbb R}$, ~ $g_λ^{+}$ is a shrinking while $g_λ^{+}$ and $g_μ$ are expanding and also $g_0^1, g_0^2, g_0^3$ have Ricci solitons. We exhibit among the non-isometric left invariant Lorentz metric on the group $G_4$ only $g_1^λ, g_2^λ$ have Lorentz Ricci solitons and $g_2^λ$ is a shrinking.
In this article, we give the integrability conditions for the existence of an isometric immersion from an orientable simply connected surface having prescribed Gauss map and positive extrinsic curvature into some unimodular Lie groups. In particular, we discuss the case when the Lie group is the euclidean unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^3$ and establish a correspondence between simply connected surfaces having extrinsic curvature $K$, $K$ different from 0 and -1, immersed in $\mathbb{S}^3$ with simply connected surfaces having non-vanishing extrinsic curvature immersed in the euclidean space $\mathbb{…
For actions with a dense orbit of a connected noncompact simple Lie group $G$, we obtain some global rigidity results when the actions preserve certain geometric structures. In particular, we prove that for a $G$-action to be equivalent to one on a space of the form $(G\times K\backslash H)/Γ$, it is necessary and sufficient for the $G$-action to preserve a pseudo-Riemannian metric and a transverse Riemannian metric to the orbits. A similar result proves that the $G$-actions on spaces of the form $(G\times H)/Γ$ are characterized by preserving transverse parallelisms. By relating our technique…
This work deals with the structure of the isometry group of pseudo-Riemannian 2-step nilmanifolds. We study the action by isometries of several groups and we construct examples showing substantial differences with the Riemannain situation; for instance the action of the nilradical of the isometry group does not need to be transitive. For a nilpotent Lie group endowed with left-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric we study conditions for which the subgroup of isometries fixing the identity element equals the subgroup of isometric automorphisms. This set equality holds for pseudo-$H$-type groups.
A Lie group $G$ naturally acts on its Lie algebra $\gg$, called the adjoint action. In this paper, we determine the orbit types of the compact exceptional Lie group $G_2$ in its Lie algebra $\gg_2$. As results, the group $G_2$ has four orbit types in the Lie algebra $\gg_2$ as $$ G_2/G_2, \quad G_2/(U(1) \times U(1)), \quad G_2/((Sp(1)\times U(1))/\Z_2), \quad G_2/((U(1)\times Sp(1))/\Z_2). $$ These orbits, especially the last two orbits, are not equivalent, that is, there exists no $G_2$-equivariant homeomorphism among them.
In this note we define the stabilizer group of any adjoint-invariant $l$-form on a complex simple Lie algebra. This result partially extend a previous result by Kable.
We describe co-adjoint orbits and Casimir functions for two-step free-nilpotent Lie algebras. The symplectic foliation consists of affine subspaces of the Lie coalgebra of different dimensions. Further, we consider left-invariant time-optimal problems on two-step Carnot groups, for which the set of admissible velocities is a strictly convex compactum in the first layer of the Lie algebra containing the origin in its interior. We describe integrals for the vertical subsystem of the Hamiltonian system of Pontryagin maximum principle. Further, we describe constancy and periodicity of solutions to…
We give a coadjoint orbit's diffeomorphic deformation between the classical semisimple case and the semi-direct product given by a Cartan decomposition. The two structures admit the Hermitian symplectic form defined in a semisimple complex Lie algebra. We provide some applications such as the constructions of Lagrangian submanifolds.
We classify representations of compact connected Lie groups whose induced action on the unit sphere has an orbit space isometric to a Riemannian orbifold.
Isometric immersions into 3-dimensional homogeneous manifolds
给出了二维黎曼流形局部等距浸入具有四维等距群的三维齐次流形的充要条件。该条件表示的度量，第二基本型，并从周围的Killing场所产生的数据。这类三维流形特别包括Berger球面、Heisenberg空间Nil（3）、李群PSL（2，R）的泛覆盖以及积空间S^2 x R和H^2 x R。我们给出了这些流形中的常中曲率（CMC）曲面的一些应用;特别地，我们证明了广义Lawson对应的存在性，即，齐次三维流形中CMC曲面之间的局部等距对应。
We study the almost Kaehler geometry of adjoint orbits of non-compact real semisimple Lie groups endowed with the Kirillov-Kostant-Souriau symplectic form and a canonically defined almost complex structure. We give explicit formulas for the Chern-Ricci form, the Hermitian scalar curvature and the Nijenhuis tensor in terms of root data. We also discuss when the Chern-Ricci form is a multiple of the symplectic form, and when compact quotients of these orbits are of Kaehler type.
Let Omega^3(SU(n)) be the Lie group of based mappings from S^3 to SU(n). We construct a Lie group extension of Omega^3(SU(n)) for n>2 by the abelian group of the affine dual space of SU(n)-connections on S^3. In this article we give several improvement of J. Mickelsson's results in 1987, especially we give a precise description of the extension of those components that are not the identity component,. We also correct several argument about the extension of Omega^3(SU(2)) which seems not to be exact in Mickelsson's work, though his observation about the fact that the extension of Omega^3(SU(2))…
This expository article is an introduction to the adjoint orbits of complex semisimple groups, primarily in the algebro-geometric and Lie-theoretic contexts, and with a pronounced emphasis on the properties of semisimple and nilpotent orbits. It is intended to build a foundation for more specialized settings in which adjoint orbits feature prominently (ex. hyperkähler geometry, Landau-Ginzburg models, and the theory of symplectic singularities). Also included are a few arguments and observations that, to the author's knowledge, have not yet appeared in the research literature.
In this paper we determine the moduli space, up to isometric automorphism, of left-invariant metrics on a $6$-dimensional Lie group $H$, such that its Lie algebra $\mathfrak{h}$ admits a complex structure and has first Betti number equal to four. We also investigate which of these metrics are Hermitian and classify the corresponding complex structures.
Let $G/K$ be an orbit of the adjoint representation of a compact connected Lie group $G$, $σ$ be an involutive automorphism of $G$ and $\tilde G$ be the Lie group of fixed points of $σ$. We find a sufficient condition for the complete integrability of the geodesic flow of the Riemannian metric on $\tilde G/(\tilde G\cap K)$, which is induced by the bi-invariant Riemannian metric on $\tilde G$. The integrals constructed here are real analytic functions, polynomial in momenta. It is checked that this sufficient condition holds when $G$ is the unitary group $U(n)$ and $σ$ is its automorphism defi…
The aim of this paper is the study of the geodesic distance in operator groups with several Riemannian metrics. More precisely we study the geodesic distance in self-adjoint operator groups with the left invariant Riemannian metric induced by the infinite trace and extend known results about the completeness of some classical Banach-Lie groups to this general class.
We prove that an isometric action of a Lie group on a Riemannian manifold admits a resolution preserving the transverse geometry if and only if the action is infinitesimally polar. We provide applications concerning topological simplicity of several classes of isometric actions, including polar and variationally complete ones. All results are proven in the more general case of singular Riemannian foliations.
A VB-groupoid is a Lie groupoid equipped with a compatible linear structure. In this paper, we describe a correspondence, up to isomorphism, between VB-groupoids and 2-term representations up to homotopy of Lie groupoids. Under this correspondence, the tangent bundle of a Lie groupoid G corresponds to the "adjoint representation" of G. The value of this point of view is that the tangent bundle is canonical, whereas the adjoint representation is not. We define a cochain complex that is canonically associated to any VB-groupoid. The cohomology of this complex is isomorphic to the groupoid cohomo…
This paper studies differential graded modules and representations up to homotopy of Lie $n$-algebroids, for general $n\in\mathbb{N}$. The adjoint and coadjoint modules are described, and the corresponding split versions of the adjoint and coadjoint representations up to homotopy are explained. In particular, the case of Lie 2-algebroids is analysed in detail. The compatibility of a Poisson bracket with the homological vector field of a Lie $n$-algebroid is shown to be equivalent to a morphism from the coadjoint module to the adjoint module, leading to an alternative characterisation of non-de…
Let G be a real compact connected simple Lie group, and g its Lie algebra. We study the problem of determining, from root data, when a sum of adjoint orbits in g, or a product of conjugacy classes in G, contains an open set. Our general methods allow us to determine exactly which sums of adjoint orbits in su(m) and products of conjugacy classes in SU(m) contain an open set, in terms of the highest multiplicities of eigenvalues. For su(m) and SU(m) we show L^2--singular dichotomy: The convolution of invariant measures on adjoint orbits, or conjugacy classes, is either singular to Haar measure o…
