A connected algebraic group Q defined over a field of characteristic zero is quasi-reductive if there is an element of its dual of reductive type, that is such that the quotient of its stabiliser by the centre of Q is a reductive subgroup of GL(q), where q=Lie(Q). Due to results of M. Duflo, coadjoint representation of a quasi-reductive Q possesses a so called maximal reductive stabiliser and knowing this subgroup, defined up to a conjugation in Q, one can describe all coadjoint orbits of reductive type. In this paper, we consider quasi-reductive parabolic subalgebras of simple complex Lie algebras as well as all seaweed subalgebras of gl(n) and describe the classes of their maximal reductive stabilisers.
Let $\g$ be a simple Lie algebra of type A or C. We show that the coadjoint representation of any seaweed subalgebra of $\g$ has some properties similar to that of the adjoint representation of a reductive Lie algebra. Namely, a) the field of invariants is rational and b) there exists a generic stabiliser whose identity component is a torus. Our main tool for this is a result about coadjoint representations of some N-graded Lie algebras, which can be regarded as an extension of Rais' theorem for the index of semi-direct products. For all other simple types, we give a uniform description of a p…
In this article, we give a simple explicit construction of an affine slice for the coadjoint action of a certain class of biparabolic (also called seaweed) subalgebras of a semisimple Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. In particular, this class includes all Borel subalgebras.
In 2000, Dergachev and Kirillov introduced subalgebras of "seaweed type" in $\mathfrak{gl}_n$ and computed their index using certain graphs, which we call type-${\sf A}$ meander graphs. Then the subalgebras of seaweed type, or just "seaweeds", have been defined by Panyushev (2001) for arbitrary reductive Lie algebras. Recently, a meander graph approach to computing the index in types ${\sf B}$ and ${\sf C}$ has been developed by the authors. In this article, we consider the most difficult and interesting case of type ${\sf D}$. Some new phenomena occurring here are related to the fact that the…
We study the coadjoint representation of contractions of reductive Lie algebras associated with symmetric decompositions. Let $\frak g=\frak g_0\oplus \frak g_1$ be a symmetric decomposition of a reductive Lie algebra $\frak g$. Then the semi-direct product of $\frak g_0$ and the $\frak g_0$-module $\frak g_1$ is a contraction of $\frak g$. We conjecture that these contractions have many properties in common with reductive Lie algebras. In particular, it is proved that in many cases the algebra of invariants is polynomial. We also discuss the so-called "codim--2 property" for coadjoint represe…
We say that a finite dimensional Lie algebra is quasi-reductive if it has a linear form whose stabilizer for the coadjoint representation, modulo the center, is a reductive Lie algebra with a center consisting of semisimple elements. Parabolic subalgebras of a semisimple Lie algebra are not always quasi-reductive (except in types A or C by work of Panyushev). The classification of quasi-reductive parabolic subalgebras in the classical case has been recently achieved in unpublished work of Duflo, Khalgui and Torasso. In this paper, we investigate the quasi-reductivity of biparabolic subalgebras…
The main result of this paper is an explicit formula for the Fourier transform of the canonical measure on a nilpotent coadjoint orbit for GL(n,R). This paper also includes some results on limit formulas for reductive Lie groups including new proofs of classical limit formulas of Rao and Harish-Chandra.
Seaweed Lie algebras are a natural generalisation of parabolic subalgebras of reductive Lie algebras. The well-known Richardson Theorem says that the adjoint action of a parabolic group has a dense open orbit in the nilpotent radical of its Lie algebra \cite{richardson}. We call elements in the open orbit Richardson elements. In \cite{JSY} together with Yu, we generalized Richardson's Theorem and showed that Richardson elements exist for seaweed Lie algebras of type $\mathbb{A}$. Using GAP, we checked that Richardson elements exist for all exceptional simple Lie algebras except $\mathbb{E}_8$,…
The coadjoint representation of a connected algebraic group $Q$ with Lie algebra $\mathfrak q$ is a thrilling and fascinating object. Symmetric invariants of $\mathfrak q$ (= $\mathfrak q$-invariants in the symmetric algebra $S(\mathfrak q)$) can be considered as a first approximation to the understanding of the coadjoint action $(Q:\mathfrak q^*)$ and coadjoint orbits. In this article, we study a class of non-reductive Lie algebras, where the description of the symmetric invariants is possible and the coadjoint representation has a number of nice invariant-theoretic properties. If $G$ is a se…
We show that the numbers of nilpotent coadjoint orbits in the dual of exceptional Lie algebra $G_2$ in characteristic $3$ and in the dual of exceptional Lie algebra $F_4$ in characteristic $2$ are finite. We determine the closure relation among nilpotent coadjoint orbits in the dual of Lie algebras of type $B,C,F_4$ in characteristic $2$ and in the dual of Lie algebra of type $G_2$ in characteristic $3$. In each case we give an explicit description of the nilpotent pieces in the dual defined in \cite{CP}, which are in general unions of nilpotent coadjoint orbits, coincide with the earlier case…
For a finite dimensional complex Lie algebra, its index is the minimal dimension of stabilizers for the coadjoint action. A famous conjecture due to Elashvili says that the index of the centralizer of an element of a reductive Lie algebra is equal to the rank. That conjecture caught attention of several Lie theorists for years. In this paper we give an almost general proof of that conjecture.
The index of a finite-dimensional Lie algebra $g$ is the minimum of dimensions of stabilisers $g_α$ of elements $α\in g^*$. Let $g$ be a reductive Lie algebra and $z(x)$ a centraliser of a nilpotent element $x\in g$. Elashvili has conjectured that the index of the centraliser $z(x)$ equals the index of $g$, i.e., the rank of $g$. Here Elashvili's conjecture is proved for reductive Lie algebras of classical type. It is shown that in cases $g=gl_n$ and $g=sp_{2n}$ the coadjoint action of $z(x)$ has a generic stabiliser. Also, we give an example of a nilpotent element $x\in so_8$ such that the co…
The purpose of this paper is to apply deformation quantization to the study of the coadjoint orbit method in the case of real reductive groups. We first prove some general results on the existence of equivariant deformation quantization of vector bundles on closed Lagrangian subvarieties, which lie in smooth symplectic varieties with Hamiltonian group actions. Then we apply them to orbit method and construct nontrivial irreducible Harish-Chandra modules for certain coadjoint orbits. Our examples include new geometric construction of representations associated to certain orbits of real exceptio…
The main result of this paper is a new parameterization of the orbits of a symmetric subgroup on a partial flag variety. The parameterization is in terms of certain Spaltenstein varieties, on one hand, and certain nilpotent orbits, on the other. One of the motivations is related to enumerating special unipotent representations of real reductive groups. Another motivation is understanding (a portion of) the closure order on the set of nilpotent coadjoint orbits.
A minimal representation of a simple non-compact Lie group is obtained by ``quantizing'' the minimal nilpotent coadjoint orbit of its Lie algebra. It provides context for Roger Howe's notion of a reductive dual pair encountered recently in the description of global gauge symmetry of a (4-dimensional) conformal observable algebra. We give a pedagogical introduction to these notions and point out that physicists have been using both minimal representations and dual pairs without naming them and hence stand a chance to understand their theory and to profit from it.
Let $G$ be connected reductive algebraic group defined over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p > 0$ and suppose that $p$ is a good prime for the root system of $G$, the derived subgroup of $G$ is simply connected and the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g} = \operatorname{Lie}(G)$ admits a non-degenerate Ad$(G)$-invariant symmetric bilinear form. Given a linear function $χ$ on $\mathfrak{g}$ we denote by $U_χ(\mathfrak{g})$ the reduced enveloping algebra of $\mathfrak{g}$ associated with $χ$. By the Kac-Weisfeiler conjecture (now a theorem), any irreducible $U_χ(\mathfrak{g})$-module has…
Let G be a connected reductive real Lie group, and H a compact connected subgroup. Harish-Chandra associates to a regular coadjoint admissible orbit M of G some unitary representations of G. Using the character formula for these representations, we show that the multiplicities of the restriction to H can be computed, under a suitable properness assumption, in terms of the fibers of the restriction map from M to the dual of the Lie algebra of H. In particular, this gives an alternate proof of a result of Paradan.
Let $G$ be a reductive Lie group and ${\mathcal O}$ the coadjoint orbit of a hyperbolic element of ${\frak g}^*$. By $π$ is denoted the unitary irreducible representation of $G$ associated with ${\mathcal O}$ by the orbit method. We give geometric interpretations in terms of concepts related to ${\mathcal O}$ of the constant $π(g)$, for $g\in Z(G)$. We also offer a description of the invariant $π(g)$ in terms of action integrals and Berry phases. In the spirit of the orbit method we interpret geometrically the infinitesimal character of the differential representation of $π$.
For any involution $σ$ of a semisimple Lie algebra $\mathfrak g$, one constructs a non-reductive Lie algebra $\mathfrak k$, which is called a $\mathbb Z_2$-contraction of $\mathfrak g$. In this paper, we attack the problem of describing maximal commutative subalgebras of the Poisson algebra $S(\mathfrak k)$. This is closely related to the study of the coadjoint representation of $\mathfrak k$ and the set, $\mathfrak k^*_{reg}$, of the regular elements of $\mathfrak k^*$. By our previous results, in the context of $\mathbb Z_2$-contractions, the argument shift method provides maximal commutativ…
The notion of "Weierstrass Section", comes from Weierstrass canonical form for elliptic curves. In celebrated work [B. Kostant, Lie group representations on polynomial rings, Amer. J. Math. 85 (1963), 327-404] constructed such a section for the action of a semisimple Lie algebra on its dual using a principal s-triple. Actually it is enough to have an "adapted pair" and indeed the construction in [A. Joseph and D. Shafrir, Polynomiality of invariants, unimodularity and adapted pairs, Transform. Groups 15 (2010), no. 4, 851-882] works rather well for the coadjoint action of an algebraic, but not…
Let $G$ be a connected, linear, real reductive Lie group with compact centre. Let $K<G$ be maximal compact. For a tempered representation $π$ of $G$, we realise the restriction $π|_K$ as the $K$-equivariant index of a Dirac operator on a homogeneous space of the form $G/H$, for a Cartan subgroup $H<G$. (The result in fact applies to every standard representation.) Such a space can be identified with a coadjoint orbit of $G$, so that we obtain an explicit version of Kirillov's orbit method for $π|_K$. In a companion paper, we use this realisation of $π|_K$ to give a geometric expression for the…
