This article gives an up-to-date account of the theory of discrete group actions on non-Riemannian homogeneous spaces.
As an introduction of the motifs of this article, we begin by reviewing the current knowledge of possible global forms of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with constant curvatures, and discuss what kind of problems we propose to pursue.
For pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, isometric actions of discrete groups are not always properly discontinuous. The fundamental problem is to understand when discrete subgroups of Lie groups $G$ act properly discontinuously on homogeneous spaces $G/H$ for non-compact $H$. For this, we introduce the concepts from a group-theoretic perspective, including the `discontinuous dual' of $G/H$ that recovers $H$ in a sense.
We then summarize recent results giving criteria for the existence of properly discontinuous subgroups, and the known results and conjectures on the existence of cocompact ones. The final section discusses the deformation theory and in particular rigidity results for cocompact properly discontinuous groups for pseudo-Riemannian symmetric spaces.
In the study of discontinuous groups for non-Riemannian homogeneous spaces, the idea of "continuous analogue" gives a powerful method (T. Kobayashi [Math. Ann. 1989]). For example, a semisimple symmetric space G/H admits a discontinuous group which is not virtually abelian if and only if G/H admits a proper SL(2,R)-action (T. Okuda [J. Differential Geom. 2013]). However, the action of discrete subgroups is not always approximated by that of connected groups. In this paper, we show that the theorem cannot be extended to general homogeneous spaces G/H of reductive type. We give a counterexample …
We construct homogeneous flat pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with non-abelian fundamental group. In the compact case, all homogeneous flat pseudo-Riemannian manifolds are complete and have abelian linear holonomy group. To the contrary, we show that there do exist non-compact and non-complete examples, where the linear holonomy is non-abelian, starting in dimensions $\geq 8$, which is the lowest possible dimension. We also construct a complete flat pseudo-Riemannian homogeneous manifold of dimension 14 with non-abelian linear holonomy. Furthermore, we derive a criterion for the properness of the …
We construct sequences of `expander manifolds' and we use them to show that there is a complete connected 2-dimensional Riemannian manifold with discontinuous isoperimetric profile, answering a question of Nardulli and Pansu. Using expander manifolds in dimension 3 we show that for any $ε, M>0$ there is a Riemannian 3-sphere $S$ of volume 1, such that any (not necessarily connected) surface separating $S$ in two regions of volume greater than $ε$, has area greater than $M$.
In spin geometry, traceless cyclic homogeneous Riemannian manifolds equipped with a homogeneous spin structure can be viewed as the simplest manifolds after Riemannian symmetric spin spaces. In this paper, we give some characterizations and properties of cyclic and traceless cyclic homogeneous Riemannian manifolds and we obtain the classification of simply-connected cyclic homogeneous Riemannian manifolds of dimension less than or equal to four. We also present a wide list of examples of non-compact irreducible Riemannian $3$-symmetric spaces admitting cyclic metrics and give the expression of…
We consider four-dimensional homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with non-trivial isotropy and completely classify the cases giving rise to non-trivial homogeneous Ricci solitons. In particular, we show the existence of non-compact homogeneous (and also invariant) pseudo-Riemannian Ricci solitons which are not isometric to solvmanifolds, and of conformally flat homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian Ricci solitons which are not symmetric.
We consider four dimensional conformally flat homogeneous pseudo Riemannian manifolds. According to forms (Seger types) of the Ricci operator, we provide a full classification of four dimensional pseudo Riemannian conformally flat homogeneous Ricci solitons.
We define a Riemannian structure as a pre-homogeneous geometric structure with curvature R. We show that R=0 if and only if the underlying metric has constant curvature. We define pre-homogeneous geometric structures and pose some problems.
Ambrose and Singer characterized connected, simply-connected and complete homogeneous Riemannian manifolds as Riemannian manifolds admitting a metric connection such that its curvature and torsion are parallel. The aim of this paper is to extend Ambrose-Singer Theorem to the general framework of locally homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. In addition we study under which conditions a locally homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifold can be recovered from the curvature and their covariant derivatives at some point up to finite order. The same problem is tackled in the presence of a geometric …
We develop a general structure theory for compact homogeneous Riemannian manifolds in relation to the co-index of symmetry. We will then use these results to classify irreducible, simply connected, compact homogeneous Riemannian manifolds whose co-index of symmetry is less or equal than three. We will also construct many examples which arise from the theory of polars and centrioles in Riemannian symmetric spaces of compact type.
We show the existence of nonsymmetric homogeneous spin Riemannian manifolds whose Dirac operator is like that on a Riemannian symmetric spin space. Such manifolds are exactly the homogeneous spin Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$ which are traceless cyclic with respect to some quotient expression $M=G/K$ and reductive decomposition $\mathfrak{g} = \mathfrak{k} \oplus \mathfrak{m}$. Using transversally symmetric fibrations of noncompact type, we give a list of them.
We show that pseudo-Riemannian almost quaternionic homogeneous spaces with index 4 and an H-irreducible isotropy group are locally isometric to a pseudo-Riemannian quaternionic Kähler symmetric space if the dimension is at least 16. In dimension 12 we give a non-symmetric example.
We show that there is a complete connected 2-dimensional Riemannian manifold with discontinuous isoperimetric profile, answering a question of Nardulli and Pansu.
In this paper we consider some properties of the three-dimensional homogeneous SO(2)-isotropic Riemannian manifolds. In particular, we determine the geodesics, the totally geodesic surfaces, the totally umbilical surfaces and the geodesics of the rotational surfaces.
We classify homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of index 4 which admit an invariant almost hyper-Hermitian structure and an H-irreducible isotropy group. The main result is that all these spaces are flat except in dimension 12.
We ask a general question: what are locally homogeneous compact pseudo-Riemannian Einstein manifolds? We show that any standard compact Clifford-Klein form of a simple non-compact Lie group admits at least one Einstein metric. We conjecture that these are basically the only possible locally homogeneous Einstein pseudo-Riemannian compact manifolds using T. Kobayashi's conjecture as a guiding principle.
We show that for any weakly reflective submanifold of a compact isotropy irreducible Riemannian homogeneous space its inverse image under the parallel transport map is an infinite dimensional weakly reflective PF submanifold of a Hilbert space. This is an extension of the author's previous result in the case of compact irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces. We also give a characterization of so obtained weakly reflective PF submanifolds.
We show that every closed, locally homogeneous Riemannian manifold with positive simplicial volume must be homeomorphic to a locally symmetric space of non-compact type.
In this paper we present some structural results on the Lie algebras of transitive isometry groups of a general compact homogenous Riemannian manifold with nontrivial Killing vector fields of constant length.
Let $M$ be a compact connected pseudo-Riemannian manifold on which a solvable connected Lie group $G$ of isometries acts transitively. We show that $G$ acts almost freely on $M$ and that the metric on $M$ is induced by a bi-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric on $G$. Furthermore, we show that the identity component of the isometry group of $M$ coincides with $G$.
We present a new method for classifying naturally reductive homogeneous spaces -- i.\,e.~homogeneous Riemannian manifolds admitting a metric connection with skew torsion that has parallel torsion \emph{and} curvature. This method is based on a deeper understanding of the holonomy algebra of connections with parallel skew torsion on Riemannian manifolds and the interplay of such a connection with the geometric structure on the given Riemannian manifold. It allows to reproduce by easier arguments the known classifications in dimensions $3,4$, and $5$, and yields as a new result the classificatio…
In this paper we develop new methods of study of generalized normal homogeneous Riemannian manifolds. In particular, we obtain a complete classification of generalized normal homogeneous Riemannian metrics on spheres. We prove that for any connected (almost effective) transitive on $S^n$ compact Lie group $G$, the family of $G$-invariant Riemannian metrics on $S^n$ contains generalized normal homogeneous but not normal homogeneous metrics if and only if this family depends on more than one parameters. Any such family (that exists only for $n=2k+1$) contains a metric $g_{\can}$ of constant sect…
The author discusses in some detail the old definitions of the curvature tensors for rigged metrized distributions on manifolds given by Schouten, Wagner, and Solov'ev. To calculate the Solov'ev sectional and Ricci curvatures for homogeneous sub-Riemannian manifolds, the author suggests to use in some cases special riggings of invariant completely non- holonomic distributions on manifolds. As a justification, we find a foliation on the cotangent bundle over a Lie group G whose leaves are tangent to invariant Hamiltonian vector fields for the Pontryagin-Hamilton func- tion. This function was ap…
In this short note, we study the gradient estimate of positive solutions to Poisson equation and the non-homogeneous heat equation in a compact Riemannian manifold (M^n,g). Our results extend the gradient estimate for positive harmonic functions and positive solutions to heat equations.
Killing vector fields of constant length correspond to isometries of constant displacement. Those in turn have been used to study homogeneity of Riemannian and Finsler quotient manifolds. Almost all of that work has been done for group manifolds or, more generally, for symmetric spaces. This paper extends the scope of research on constant length Killing vector fields to a class of Riemannian normal homogeneous spaces.
A smooth curve on $G/H$ is called a Riemannian equigeodesic if it is a homogeneous geodesic for all $G$-invariant Riemannian metrics on $G/H$. With the $G$-invariant Riemannian metric replaced by other classes of $G$-invariant metrics, we can similarly define Finsler equigeodesic, Randers equigeodesic, $(α,β)$ equigeodesic, etc. In this paper, we study Randers and $(α,β)$ equigeodesics. For a compact homogeneous manifold, we prove Randers and $(α,β)$ equigeodesics are equivalent, and find a criterion for them. Using this criterion we can classify the equigeodesics on many compact homogeneous m…
We find new conditions that the existence of nullity of the curvature tensor of an irreducible homogeneous space $M=G/H$ imposes on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak g$ of $G$ and on the Lie algebra $\tilde{\mathfrak g}$ of the full isometry group of $M$. Namely, we prove that there exists a transvection of $M$ in the direction of any element of the nullity, possibly by enlarging the presentation group $G$. Moreover, we prove that these transvections generate an abelian ideal of $\tilde{\mathfrak g}$. These results constitute a substantial improvement on the structure theory developed in \cite{DOV}. …
The goal of this article is the study of homogeneous Riemannian structure tensors within the framework of reduction under a group $H$ of isometries. In a first result, $H$ is a normal subgroup of the group of symmetries associated to the reducing tensor $\bar{S}$. The situation when $H$ is any group acting freely is analyzed in a second result. The invariant classes of homogeneous tensors are also investigated when reduction is performed. It turns out that the geometry of the fibres is involved in the preservation of some of them. Some classical examples illustrate the theory. Finally, the red…
In the present paper, we prove that no infinite group acts isometrically, effectively, and properly discontinuously on a certain class of Lorentzian manifolds that are not necessarily homogeneous.
We show that a simply connected Riemannian homogeneous space M which admits a totally geodesic hypersurface F is isometric to either (a) the Riemannian product of a space of constant curvature and a homogeneous space, or (b) the warped product of the Euclidean space and a homogeneous space, or (c) the twisted product of the line and a homogeneous space (with the warping/twisting function given explicitly). In the first case, F is also a Riemannian product; in the last two cases, it is a leaf of a totally geodesic homogeneous fibration. Case (c) can alternatively be characterised by the fact th…
We introduce a new notion of a homogeneous pair for a pseudo-Riemannian metric $g$ and a positive function $f$ on a manifold $M$ admitting a free $\mathbb{R}_{>0}$-action. There are many examples admitting this structure. For example, (a) a class of pseudo-Hessian manifolds admitting a free $\mathbb{R}_{>0}$-action and a homogeneous potential function such as the moduli space of torsion-free $G_2$-structures, (b) the space of Riemannian metrics on a compact manifold, and (c) many moduli spaces of geometric structures such as torsion-free ${\rm Spin}(7)$-structures admit this structure. Hence w…
We study spin structures on compact simply-connected homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds (M = G/H, g) of a compact semisimple Lie group G. We classify flag manifolds F = G/H of a compact simple Lie group which are spin. This yields also the classification of all flag manifolds carrying an invariant metaplectic structure. Then we investigate spin structures on principal torus bundles over flag manifolds, i.e. C-spaces, or equivalently simply-connected homogeneous complex manifolds M=G/L of a compact semisimple Lie group G. We study the topology of M and we provide a sufficient and necessary…
In this short survey, we show how two (classes of) known examples of inhomogeneous, curvature homogeneous Riemannian manifolds with nontrivial $κ$-nullity can be seen as deformations of homogeneous metrics along the vertical distribution of an integrable Riemannian submersion. We also pose two open questions.
A Riemannian manifold is called geometrically formal if the wedge product of harmonic forms is again harmonic, which implies in the compact case that the manifold is topologically formal in the sense of rational homotopy theory. A manifold admitting a Riemannian metric of positive sectional curvature is conjectured to be topologically formal. Nonetheless, we show that among the homogeneous Riemannian metrics of positive sectional curvature a geometrically formal metric is either symmetric, or a metric on a rational homology sphere.
Osserman manifolds are a generalization of locally two-point homogeneous spaces. We introduce $k$-root manifolds in which the reduced Jacobi operator has exactly $k$ eigenvalues. We investigate one-root and two-root manifolds as another generalization of locally two-point homogeneous spaces. We prove that there is no two-root Riemannian manifold of odd dimension. In twice an odd dimension, we describe all two-root Riemannian algebraic curvature tensors and give additional conditions for two-root Riemannian manifolds.
