Let M be a connected compact pseudoRiemannian manifold acted upon topologically transitively and isometrically by a connected noncompact simple Lie group G. If m_0, n_0 are the dimensions of the maximal lightlike subspaces tangent to M and G, respectively, where G carries any bi-invariant metric, then we have n_0 \leq m_0. We study G-actions that satisfy the condition n_0 = m_0. With no rank restrictions on G, we prove that M has a finite covering \hat{M} to which the G-action lifts so that \hat{M} is G-equivariantly diffeomorphic to an action on a double coset K\backslash L/Γ, as considered in Zimmer's program, with G normal in L (Theorem A). If G has finite center and \rank_\R(G)\geq 2, then we prove that we can choose \hat{M} for which L is semisimple and Γis an irreducible lattice (Theorem B). We also prove that our condition n_0 = m_0 completely characterizes, up to a finite covering, such double coset G-actions (Theorem C). This describes a large family of double coset G-actions and provides a partial positive answer to the conjecture proposed in Zimmer's program.
We give a basic treatment of lattices $Γ$ in these groups. Certain tori $T_F$ and $T_B$ provide the model fiber and the base for a submersion of $Γ\backslash N$. This submersion may not be pseudoriemannian in the usual sense, because the tori may be degenerate. We then begin the study of periodic geodesics in these compact nilmanifolds, obtaining a complete calculation of the period spectrum of certain flat spaces.
This is a survey article with a limited list of references (as required by the publisher) which appears in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics, eds. J.-P. Francoise, G.L. Naber and Tsou S.T. Oxford: Elsevier, 2006. vol.4, pp.94--104.
We determine the complete conjugate locus along all geodesics parallel or perpendicular to the center (Theorem 2.3). When the center is 1-dimensional we obtain formulas in all cases (Theorem 2.5), and when a certain operator is also diagonalizable these formulas become completely explicit (Corollary 2.7). These yield some new information about the smoothness of the pseudoriemannian conjugate locus. We also obtain the multiplicities of all conjugate points.
This is partly an expository paper, where the authors' work on pseudoriemannian Einstein metrics on nilpotent Lie groups is reviewed. A new criterion is given for the existence of a diagonal Einstein metric on a nice nilpotent Lie group. Classifications of special classes of Ricci-flat metrics on nilpotent Lie groups of dimension $\leq8$ are obtained. Some related open questions are presented.
We begin a systematic study of these spaces, initially following along the lines of Eberlein's comprehensive study of the Riemannian case. In particular, we integrate the geodesic equation, discuss the structure of the isometry group, and make a study of lattices and periodic geodesics. Some major differences from the Riemannian theory appear. There are many flat groups (versus none), including Heisenberg groups. While still a semidirect product, the isometry group can be strictly larger than the obvious analogue. Everything is illustrated with explicit examples. We introduce the notion of pH-…
We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for existence of isometric immersions of a simply connected Riemannian manifold into a two-step nilpotent Lie group. This comprises the case of immersions into $H$-type groups.
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…
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 isometric Lie group actions on the compact exceptional groups E6, E7, E8, F4 and G2 endowed with a biinvariant metric. We classify polar actions on these groups. We determine all isometric actions of cohomogeneity less than three on E6, E7, F4 and all isometric actions of cohomogeneity less than 20 on E8. Moreover we determine the principal isotropy algebras for all isometric actions on G2.
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.
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 an…
We study the Ricci tensor of left-invariant pseudoriemannian metrics on Lie groups. For an appropriate class of Lie groups that contains nilpotent Lie groups, we introduce a variety with a natural $\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{R})$ action, whose orbits parametrize Lie groups with a left-invariant metric; we show that the Ricci operator can be identified with the moment map relative to a natural symplectic structure. From this description we deduce that the Ricci operator is the derivative of the scalar curvature $s$ under gauge transformations of the metric, and show that Lie algebra derivations with…
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…
We classify representations of compact connected Lie groups whose induced action on the unit sphere has an orbit space isometric to a Riemannian orbifold.
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{…
We introduce a new integral invariant for isometric actions of compact Lie groups, the copolarity. Roughly speaking, it measures how far from being polar the action is. We generalize some results about polar actions in this context. In particular, we develop some of the structural theory of copolarity k representations, we classify the irreducible representations of copolarity one, and we relate the copolarity of an isometric action to the concept of variational completeness in the sense of Bott and Samelson.
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.
We show that integration over a $G$-manifold $M$ can be reduced to integration over a minimal section $Σ$ with respect to an induced weighted measure and integration over a homogeneous space $G/N$. We relate our formula to integration formulae for polar actions and calculate some weight functions. In case of a compact Lie group acting on itself via conjugation, we obtain a classical result of Hermann Weyl. Our formula allows to view almost arbitrary isometric group actions as generalized random matrix ensembles. We also establish a reductive decomposition of Killing fields with respect to a mi…
We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a 2-dimensional Riemannian manifold to be locally isometrically immersed into a 3-dimensional homogeneous manifold with a 4-dimensional isometry group. The condition is expressed in terms of the metric, the second fundamental form, and data arising from an ambient Killing field. This class of 3-manifolds includes in particular the Berger spheres, the Heisenberg space Nil(3), the universal cover of the Lie group PSL(2,R) and the product spaces S^2 x R and H^2 x R. We give some applications to constant mean curvature (CMC) surfaces in these manifo…
We prove a rigidity of the lightcone in Minkowski space. It is essentially the unique space endowed with a degenerate Riemannian metric, of lightlike type, and supporting an isometric non-proper action of a semi-simple group.
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.
We prove an existence result for local and global G-structure preserving affine immersions between affine manifolds. Several examples are discussed in the context of Riemannian and semi-Riemannian geometry, including the case of isometric immersions into Lie groups endowed with a left-invariant metric, and the case of isometric immersions into products of space forms.
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.
Let $Γ$ be a discrete group with property $(T)$ of Kazhdan. We prove that any Riemannian isometric action of $Γ$ on a compact manifold $X$ is locally rigid. We also prove a more general foliated version of this result. The foliated result is used in our proof of local rigidity for standard actions of higher rank semisimple Lie groups and their lattices in \cite{FM2}. One definition of property $(T)$ is that a group $Γ$ has property $(T)$ if every isometric $Γ$ action on a Hilbert space has a fixed point. We prove a variety of strengthenings of this fixed point properties for groups with proper…
By using a Borel density theorem for algebraic quotients, we prove a theorem concerning isometric actions of a Lie group $G$ on a smooth or analytic manifold $M$ with a rigid $\mathrm{A}$-structure $σ$. It generalizes Gromov's centralizer and representation theorems to the case where $R(G)$ is split solvable and $G/R(G)$ has no compact factors, strengthens a special case of Gromov's open dense orbit theorem, and implies that for smooth $M$ and simple $G$, if Gromov's representation theorem does not hold, then the local Killing fields on $\widetilde{M}$ are highly non-extendable. As application…
Departing from the observation that the Penrose limit of AdS_3 x S^3 is a group contraction in the sense of Inonu and Wigner, we explore the relation between the symmetric D-branes of AdS_3 x S^3 and those of its Penrose limit, a six-dimensional symmetric plane wave analogous to the four-dimensional Nappi--Witten spacetime. Both backgrounds are Lie groups admitting bi-invariant lorentzian metrics and symmetric D-branes wrap their (twisted) conjugacy classes. We determine the (twisted and untwisted) symmetric D-branes in the plane wave background and we prove the existence of a space-filling D5…
We study HKT structures on nilpotent Lie groups and on associated nilmanifolds. We exhibit three weak HKT structures on $\R^8$ which are homogeneous with respect to extensions of Heisenberg type Lie groups. The corresponding hypercomplex structures are of a special kind, called abelian. We prove that on any 2-step nilpotent Lie group all invariant HKT structures arise from abelian hypercomplex structures. Furthermore, we use a correspondence between abelian hypercomplex structures and subspaces of ${\frak sp}(n)$ to produce continuous families of compact and noncompact of manifolds carrying no…
Denote by $\widetilde{\mathrm{U}}(p,q)$ the universal covering group of $\mathrm{U}(p,q)$, the linear group of isometries of the pseudo-Hermitian space $\mathbb{C}^{p,q}$ of signature $p,q$. Let $M$ be a connected analytic complete pseudo-Riemannian manifold that admits an isometric $\widetilde{\mathrm{U}}(p,q)$-action and that satisfies $\dim M \leq n(n+2)$ where $n = p+q$. We prove that if the action of $\widetilde{\mathrm{SU}}(p,q)$ (the connected derived group of $\widetilde{\mathrm{U}}(p,q)$) has a dense orbit and the center of $\widetilde{\mathrm{U}}(p,q)$ acts non-trivially, then $M$ is…
A proper isometric Lie group action on a Riemannian manifold is called polar if there exists a closed connected submanifold which meets all orbits orthogonally. In this article we study polar actions on Damek-Ricci spaces. We prove criteria for isometric actions on Damek-Ricci spaces to be polar, find examples and give some partial classifications of polar actions on Damek-Ricci spaces. In particular, we show that non-trivial polar actions exist on all Damek-Ricci spaces.
In this short note we provide an elementary proof of the folklore result in the theory of isometric Lie group actions on Riemannian manifolds asserting that sections of polar actions are totally geodesic.
In this article we develop some elementary aspects of a theory of symmetry in sub-Lorentzian geometry. First of all we construct invariants characterizing isometric classes of sub-Lorentzian contact 3 manifolds. Next we characterize vector fields which generate isometric and conformal symmetries in general sub-Lorentzian manifolds. We then focus attention back to the case where the underlying manifold is a contact 3 manifold and more specifically when the manifold is also a Lie group and the structure is left-invariant.
We prove that there do not exist quasi-isometric embeddings of connected nonabelian nilpotent Lie groups equipped with left invariant Riemannian metrics into a metric measure space satisfying the RCD(0,N), with N > 1. In fact, we can prove that a subRiemannian manifold whose generic degree of nonholonomy is not smaller than 2 can not be biLipschitzly embedded in any Banach space with the Radon-Nikodym property. We also get that every regular sub-Riemannian manifold do not satisfy the CD(K,N) with N > 1. We also prove that the subRiemannian manifold is infinitesimally Hilbert space.
In this paper, we prove results concerning the large scale geometry of connected, simply connected nonabelian nilpotent Lie groups equipped with left invariant Riemannian metrics. Precisely, we prove that there do not exist quasi-isometric embeddings of such a nilpotent Lie group into either a CAT(0) metric space or an Alexandrov metric space with curvature bounded below. The main technical aspect of this work is the proof of a limited metric differentiability of Lipschitz maps between connected graded nilpotent Lie groups equipped with left invariant Carnot-Caratheodory metrics and complete m…
Given an exceptional compact simple Lie group $G$ we describe new left-invariant Einstein metrics which are not naturally reductive. In particular, we consider fibrations of $G$ over flag manifolds with a certain kind of isotropy representation and we construct the Einstein equation with respect to the induced left-invariant metrics. Then we apply a technique based on Gröbner bases and classify the real solutions of the associated algebraic systems. For the Lie group ${\rm G}_2$ we obtain the first known example of a left-invariant Einstein metric, which is not naturally reductive. Moreover, f…
Let $M$ be an analytic complete finite volume pseudo-Riemannian manifold and $\widetilde{Sp}(n,\mathbb{R})\times\widetilde{Sp}(1,\mathbb{R})$ a connected semisimple Lie group such that its Lie algebra is $\mathfrak{sp}(n,\mathbb{R})\oplus\mathfrak{sp}(1,\mathbb{R})$. We characterize the structure of the manifold $M$ assuming that the Lie group $\widetilde{Sp}(n,\mathbb{R})\times\widetilde{Sp}(1,\mathbb{R})$ acts isometrically on $M$ and that its dimension satisfies $3+n(2n+1)<\dim(M)\leq(n+1)(2n+3)$.
The three-dimensional Heisenberg group $H_3$ has three left-invariant Lorentz metrics $g_1$, $g_2$ and $g_3$. They are not isometric each other. In this paper, we characterize the left-invariant Lorentzian metric $g_1$ as a Lorentz Ricci soliton. This Ricci soliton $g_1$ is a shrinking non-gradient Ricci soliton. Likewise we prove that the isometry group of flat Euclid plane E(2) and the isometry group of flat Lorentz plane E(1,1) have Lorentz Ricci solitons.
Here, we classify Lie groups acting isometrically on compact Lorentz manifolds, and in particular we describe the geometric structure of compact homogeneous Lorentz manifolds.
We prove that the asymptotic Assouad-Nagata dimension of a connected Lie group $G$ equipped with a left-invariant Riemannian metric coincides with its topological dimension of $G/C$ where $C$ is a maximal compact subgroup. To prove it we will compute the Assouad-Nagata dimension of connected solvable Lie groups and semisimple Lie groups. As a consequence we show that the asymptotic Assouad-Nagata dimension of a polycyclic group equipped with a word metric is equal to its Hirsch length and that some wreath-type finitely generated groups can not be quasi-isometric to any cocompact lattice on a c…
We consider critical points of the global squared $L^2$-norms of the second fundamental form and the mean curvature vector of isometric immersions into a fixed background Riemannian manifold under deformations of the immersion. We use the critical points of the former functional to define canonical representatives of a given integer homology class of the background manifold. We study the fibration ${\mathbb S}^3 \hookrightarrow Sp(2)\stackrel {π_{\circ}}{\rightarrow} {\mathbb S}^7$ from this point of view, showing that the fibers are the canonical generators of the $3$-integer homology of $Sp(…
We prove that the Euler characteristic of an even-dimensional compact manifold with positive (nonnegative) sectional curvature is positive (nonnegative) provided that the manifold admits an isometric action of a compact Lie group $G$ with principal isotropy group $H$ and cohomogeneity $k$ such that $k - (\rank G - \rank H)\le 5$. Moreover, we prove that the Euler characteristic of a compact Riemannian manifold $M^{4l+4}$ or $M^{4l+2}$ with positive sectional curvature is positive if $M$ admits an effective isometric action of a torus $T^l$, i.e., if the symmetry rank of $M$ is $\ge l$.
We show a geometric rigidity of isometric actions of non compact (semisimple) Lie groups on Lorentz manifolds. Namely, we show that the manifold has a warped product structure of a Lorentz manifold with constant curvature by a Riemannian manifold.
We study cohomogeneity one Riemannian manifolds and we establish some simple criterium to test when a singular orbit is totally geodesic. As an application, we classify compact, positively curved Riemannian manifolds which are acted on isometrically by a non semisimple Lie group with an hypersurface orbit.
Let $G$ be a compact Lie group acting effectively by isometries on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ with nonempty fixed point set $Fix(M,G)$. We say that the action is \emph{fixed point homogeneous} if $G$ acts transitively on a normal sphere to some component of $Fix(M,G)$, equivalently, if $Fix(M,G)$ has codimension one in the orbit space of the action. We classify up to diffeomorphism closed, simply connected 5-manifolds with nonnegative sectional curvature and an effective fixed point homogeneous isometric action of a compact Lie group.
