Cohomogeneity One Manifolds and Self-Maps of Nontrivial Degree

We construct natural self-maps of compact cohomogeneity one manifolds and compute their degrees and Lefschetz numbers. On manifolds with simple cohomology rings this yields relations between the order of the Weyl group and the Euler characteristic of a principal orbit. As examples we determine all cohomogeneity one actions on irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of compact type that lead to self-maps of degree ≠ −1; 0; 1. We derive explicit formulas for new coordinate polynomial self-maps of the compact matrix groups SU(3), SU(4), and SO(2n). For SU(3) we determine precisely which integers can be realized as degrees of self-maps. Supported by a DFG Heisenberg scholarship and DFG priority program SPP 1154.     

Biharmonic homogeneous hypersurfaces in compact symmetric spaces

In this paper, we study biharmonic hypersurfaces in Einstein manifolds. Then, we determine all the biharmonic hypersurfaces in irreducible symmetric spaces of compact type which are regular orbits of commutative Hermann actions of cohomogeneity one.     

Polar actions on Hermitian and quaternion-Kähler symmetric spaces

We analyze polar actions on Hermitian and quaternion-Kähler symmetric spaces of compact type. For complex integrable polar actions on Hermitian symmetric spaces of compact type we prove a reduction theorem and several corollaries concerning the geometry of these actions. The results are independent of the classification of polar actions on Hermitian symmetric spaces. In the second part we prove that polar actions on Wolf spaces are quaternion-coisotropic and that isometric actions on these spaces admit an orbit of special type, analogous to the existence of a complex orbit for an isometric action on a compact homogeneous simply connected Kähler manifold.     

Low Cohomogeneity Representations and Orbit Maximal Actions

An orthogonal representation of a compact Lie group is called polar if thereexists a linear subspace which meets all orbits orthogonally.It has been shown by Conlon that one can associate a Coxeter groupto such a representation.From this, an upper bound for the cohomogeneity of an irreduciblepolar representation can be derived.Another property of irreducible polar representations isthat the action restricted to the unit spherehas maximal orbits in the sense that any action having largerorbits is transitive.We give a classification of orbit maximal actions on spheresand use it to show that irreducible polar representations arecharacterized by these two properties.     

Polar Foliations of Symmetric Spaces

We prove that a polar foliation of codimension at least three in an irreducible compact symmetric space is hyperpolar, unless the symmetric space has rank one. For reducible symmetric spaces of compact type, we derive decomposition results for polar foliations.     

HOMOGENEOUS COMPACT GEOMETRIES

We classify compact homogeneous geometries of irreducible spherical type and rank at least 2 which admit a transitive action of a compact connected group, up to equivariant 2-coverings. We apply our classification to polar actions on compact symmetric spaces.     

Curvature Estimates for Irreducible Symmetric Spaces

By making use of the classification of real simple Lie algebra, we get the maximum of the squared length of restricted roots case by case, and thus get the upper bounds of sectional curvature for irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of compact type. As an application, this paper verifies Sampson's conjecture in most cases for irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type.     

Symmetric submanifolds associated with irreducible symmetric R-spaces

We construct examples of symmetric submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type and obtain the classification of symmetric submanifolds in irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type and rank greater than one. This finishes the classification problem of symmetric submanifolds in Riemannian symmetric spaces completely.     

Immersions of cohomogeneity one Riemannian manifolds

This work deals with positively curved compact Riemannian manifolds which are acted on by a closed Lie group of isometries whose principal orbits have codimension one and are isotropy irreducible homogeneous spaces. For such manifolds we can show that their universal covering manifold may be isometrically immersed as a hypersurface of revolution in an euclidean space.     

Cohomogeneity one manifolds with a small family of invariant metrics

In this paper, we classify compact simply connected cohomogeneity one manifolds up to equivariant diffeomorphism whose isotropy representation by the connected component of the principal isotropy subgroup has three or less irreducible summands. The manifold is either a bundle over a homogeneous space or an irreducible symmetric space. As a corollary such manifolds admit an invariant metric with non-negative sectional curvature.     

Low cohomogeneity and polar actions on exceptional compact Lie groups

We study isometric Lie group actions on the compact exceptional groups E₆, E₇, E₈, F₄ and G₂ endowed with a bi-invariant metric. We classify polar actions on these groups, in particular, we show that all polar actions are hyperpolar. 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.     

Coisotropic and polar actions on compact irreducible Hermitian symmetric spaces

We obtain the full classification of coisotropic and polar isometric actions of compact Lie groups on irreducible Hermitian symmetric spaces.

     

Homogeneity Rank and Atoms of Actions

We introduce two related concepts for smooth actions of compact Lie groups:The homogeneity rank is a simple numerical invariant of the action.As one of our results we determine the precise range of this invariantfor isometric actions on compact Riemannian manifolds with positivesectional curvature and exhibit special properties of the actionswith maximal homogeneity rank.Atoms are special components of fixed point sets. They inherit actionswith the same cohomogenity and homogeneity rank as the original action,but with trivial principal isotropy group. Other properties of the originalaction like polarity are reflected in the atoms.We determine the atoms in some interesting concrete cases.Not only for this purpose we give a detailed treatise on the structureof fixed point sets, in particular in cohomogeneity one manifolds.     

Point leaf maximal singular Riemannian foliations in positive curvature

We generalize the notion of fixed point homogeneous isometric group actions to the context of singular Riemannian foliations. We find that in some cases, positively curved manifolds admitting these so-called point leaf maximal SRF's are diffeo/homeomorphic to compact rank one symmetric spaces. In all cases, manifolds admitting such foliations are cohomology CROSSes or finite quotients of them. Among non-simply connected manifolds, we find examples of such foliations which are non-homogeneous.     

A splitting theorem for equifocal submanifolds in simply connected compact symmetric spaces

A submanifold in a symmetric space is called equifocal if it has a globally flat abelian normal bundle and its focal data is invariant under normal parallel transportation. This is a generalization of the notion of isoparametric submanifolds in Euclidean spaces. To each equifocal submanifold, we can associate a Coxeter group, which is determined by the focal data at one point. In this paper we prove that an equifocal submanifold in a simply connected compact symmetric space is a non-trivial product of two such submanifolds if and only if its associated Coxeter group is decomposable. As a consequence, we get a similar splitting result for hyperpolar group actions on compact symmetric spaces. These results are an application of a splitting theorem for isoparametric submanifolds in Hilbert spaces by Heintze and Liu.

     

KILLING VECTOR FIELDS OF CONSTANT LENGTH ON LOCALLY SYMMETRIC RIEMANNIAN MANIFOLDS

In this paper nontrivial Killing vector fields of constant length and the corresponding ows on smooth complete Riemannian manifolds are investigated. It is proved that such a ow on symmetric space is free or induced by a free isometric action of the circle S ¹. Examples of unit Killing vector fields generated by almost free but not free actions of S ¹ on locally symmetric Riemannian spaces are found; among them are homogeneous (nonsimply connected) Riemannian manifolds of constant positive sectional curvature and locally Euclidean spaces. Some unsolved questions are formulated. DOI: .     

Free, Isometric Circle Actions on Compact Symmetric Spaces

Let S=G/K be a strongly irreducible, simply connected, compact symmetric space and let be its group of isometries. We classify the symmetric spaces among these that admit free, isometric circle actions. The existence of such actions is important in constructing examples of manifolds with positive sectional curvature.     

Cohomogeneity one Alexandrov spaces

We obtain a structure theorem for closed, cohomogeneity one Alexandrov spaces and we classify closed, cohomogeneity one Alexandrov spaces in dimensions 3 and 4. As a corollary we obtain the classification of closed, n-dimensional, cohomogeneity one Alexandrov spaces admitting an isometric T ⁿ⁻¹ action. In contrast to the one- and two-dimensional cases, where it is known that an Alexandrov space is a topological manifold, in dimension 3 the classification contains, in addition to the known cohomogeneity one manifolds, the spherical suspension of \mathbbRP² \mathbb{R}{P^2} , which is not a manifold.     

Austere and arid properties for PF submanifolds in Hilbert spaces

Austere submanifolds and arid submanifolds constitute respectively two different classes of minimal submanifolds in finite dimensional Riemannian manifolds. In this paper we introduce the concepts of these submanifolds into a class of proper Fredholm (PF) submanifolds in Hilbert spaces, discuss their relation and show examples of infinite dimensional austere PF submanifolds and arid PF submanifolds in Hilbert spaces. We also mention a classification problem of minimal orbits in hyperpolar PF actions on Hilbert spaces.