Combinatorial Lie bialgebras of curves on surfaces

Goldman (Invent. Math. 85(2) (1986) 263) and Turaev (Ann. Sci. Ecole Norm. Sup. (4) 24 (6) (1991) 635) found a Lie bialgebra structure on the vector space generated by non-trivial free homotopy classes of curves on a surface. When the surface has non-empty boundary, this vector space has a basis of cyclic reduced words in the generators of the fundamental group and their inverses. We give a combinatorial algorithm to compute this Lie bialgebra on this vector space of cyclic words. Using this presentation, we prove a variant of Goldman's result relating the bracket to disjointness of curve representatives when one of the classes is simple. We exhibit some examples we found by programming the algorithm which answer negatively Turaev's question about the characterization of simple curves in terms of the cobracket. Further computations suggest an alternative characterization of simple curves in terms of the bracket of a curve and its inverse. Turaev's question is still open in genus zero.     

COADJOINT ORBITS FOR THE CENTRAL EXTENSION OF Diff^＋（S^1） AND THEIR REPRESENTATIVES

According to Kirillov′s idea, the irreducible unitary representations of a Liegroup G roughly correspond to the coadjoint orbits O. In the forward direction one ap-plies the methods of geometric quantization to produce a representation, and in the reversedirection one computes a transform of the character of a representation, to obtain a coad-joint orbit. The method of orbits in the representations of Lie groups suggests the detailedstudy of coadjoint orbits of a Lie group G in the space g* dual to the Lie algebra g of G.In this paper, two primary goals are achieved: one is to completely classify the smoothcoadjoint orbits of Virasoro group for nonzero central charge c; the other is to find repre-sentatives for coadjoint orbits. These questions have been considered previously by Segal,Kirillov, and Witten, but their results are not quite complete. To accomplish this, theauthors start by describing the coadjoint action of D-the Lie group of all orientation pre-serving diffeomorphisms on the circle S^1, and its central extension D~, then the authors willgive a complete classification of smooth coadjoint orbits. In fact, they can be parameterizedby a subspace Of conjugacy classes of PSU~(1,1). Finally, the authors will show how to findrepresentatives of coadjoint orbits by analyzing the vector fields stabilizing the orbits, anddescribe the amazing connection between the characteristic (trace) of conjugacy classes of PSU~(1, 1) and that of vector fields stabilizing orbits.     

Two-dimensional almost-Riemannian structures with tangency points

Two-dimensional almost-Riemannian structures are generalized Riemannian structures on surfaces for which a local orthonormal frame is given by a Lie bracket generating pair of vector fields that can become collinear. We study the relation between the topological invariants of an almost-Riemannian structure on a compact oriented surface and the rank-two vector bundle over the surface which defines the structure. We analyse the generic case including the presence of tangency points, i.e. points where two generators of the distribution and their Lie bracket are linearly dependent. The main result of the paper provides a classification of oriented almost-Riemannian structures on compact oriented surfaces in terms of the Euler number of the vector bundle corresponding to the structure. Moreover, we present a Gauss–Bonnet formula for almost-Riemannian structures with tangency points.     

On the geometry of conjugacy classes in classical groups

Summary We study closures of conjugacy classes in the Lie algebras of the orthogonal and symplectic groups and determine which ones are normal varieties. Furthermore we give a complete classification of the minimal singularities which arise in this context, i.e. the singularities which occur in the open classes in the boundary of a given conjugacy class. In contrast to the results for the general linear group ([KP1], [KP2]) there are classes with non normal closure; they are branched in a class of codimension two and give rise to normal minimal singularities. The methods used are (classical) invariant theory and algebraic geometry. Supported in part by the SFB Theoretische Mathematik, University of Bonn, and by the University of Hamburg     

Spherical orbits and representations of Uε(g)

Let U_ε(g) be the simply connected quantized enveloping algebra at roots of one associated to a finite dimensional complex simple Lie algebra g. The De Concini-Kac-Procesi conjecture on the dimension of the irreducible representations of U_ε(g) is proved for the representations corresponding to the spherical conjugacy classes of the simply connected algebraic group G with Lie algebra g. We achieve this result by means of a new characterization of the spherical conjugacy classes of G in terms of elements of the Weyl group.     

Lipschitz Classification of Almost-Riemannian Distances on Compact Oriented Surfaces

Two-dimensional almost-Riemannian structures are generalized Riemannian structures on surfaces for which a local orthonormal frame is given by a Lie bracket generating pair of vector fields that can become collinear. We consider the Carnot–Carathéodory distance canonically associated with an almost-Riemannian structure and study the problem of Lipschitz equivalence between two such distances on the same compact oriented surface. We analyze the generic case, allowing in particular for the presence of tangency points, i.e., points where two generators of the distribution and their Lie bracket are linearly dependent. The main result of the paper provides a characterization of the Lipschitz equivalence class of an almost-Riemannian distance in terms of a labeled graph associated with it.     

Trialitarian automorphisms of lie algebras

Over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero simple Lie algebras admit outer automorphisms of order 3 if and only if they are of type D₄. Moreover, thereare two conjugacy classes of such automorphisms. Among orthogonal Lie algebras over arbitrary fields of characteristic zero, only orthogonal Lie algebras relative to quadratic norm forms of Cayley algebras admit outer automorphisms of order 3. We give a complete list of conjugacy classes of outer automorphisms of order 3 for orthogonal Lie algebras over arbitrary fields of characteristic zero. For the norm form of a given Cayley algebra, one class is associated with the Cayley algebra and the others with central simple algebras of degree 3 with involution of the second kind such that the cohomological invariant of the involution is the norm form.     

Representation stability for the cohomology of arrangements associated to root systems

From Smyth’s classification, modular compactifications of the moduli space of pointed smooth rational curves are indexed by combinatorial data, the so-called extremal assignments. We explore their combinatorial structures and show that any extremal assignment is a finite union of atomic extremal assignments. We discuss a connection with the birational geometry of the moduli space of stable pointed rational curves. As applications, we study three special classes of extremal assignments: smooth, toric, and invariant with respect to the symmetric group action. We identify them with three combinatorial objects: simple intersecting families, complete multipartite graphs, and special families of integer partitions, respectively.     

Bounds on the largest Kronecker and induced multiplicities of finite groups

We give new bounds and asymptotic estimates on the largest Kronecker and induced multiplicities of finite groups. The results apply to large simple groups of Lie type and other groups with few conjugacy classes.     

Graded Lie algebra of Hermitian tangent valued forms

We define the Hermitian tangent valued forms of a complex 1-dimensional line bundle equipped with a Hermitian metric. We provide a local characterization of these forms in terms of a local basis and of a local fibred chart. We show that these forms constitute a graded Lie algebra through the Frölicher–Nijenhuis bracket.Moreover, we provide a global characterization of this graded Lie algebra, via a given Hermitian connection, in terms of the tangent valued forms and forms of the base space. The bracket involves the curvature of the given Hermitian connection.     

On Quantum Immanants and the Cycle Basis of the Quantum Permutation Space

There are many combinatorial expressions for evaluating characters of the Hecke algebra of type A. However, with rare exceptions, they give simple results only for permutations that have minimal length in their conjugacy class. For other permutations, a recursive formula has to be applied. Consequently, quantum immanants are complicated objects when expressed in the standard basis of the quantum permutation space. In this paper, we introduce another natural basis of the quantum permutation space, and we prove that coefficients of quantum immanants in this basis are class functions.     

The maximal subgroups of F4(2) and its automorphism group

We completely determine the conjugacy classes of maximal subgroups of the finite simple group F₄(2) of Lie type, and of its automorphism group.     

Fixed point varieties on affine flag manifolds

We study the space of Iwahori subalgebras containing a given element of a semisimple Lie algebra over C((ɛ)). We also define and study a map from nilpotent orbits in a semisimple Lie algebra over C to conjugacy classes in the Weyl group. Both authors were supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

Isometric actions on the four dimensional Minkowski spacetime

In this paper we give representations of all connected Lie groups acting isometrically on the four dimensional Minkowski spacetime, up to conjugacy within the full isometry group of the space. For each obtained group, we study its induced orbits. Then we classify the Lie groups up to orbit equivalence.     

Commutators of flow maps of nonsmooth vector fields

Relying on the notion of set-valued Lie bracket introduced in an earlier paper, we extend some classical results valid for smooth vector fields to the case when the vector fields are just Lipschitz. In particular, we prove that the flows of two Lipschitz vector fields commute for small times if and only if their Lie bracket vanishes everywhere (i.e., equivalently, if their classical Lie bracket vanishes almost everywhere). We also extend the asymptotic formula that gives an estimate of the lack of commutativity of two vector fields in terms of their Lie bracket, and prove a simultaneous flow box theorem for commuting families of Lipschitz vector fields.     

Construction process for simple Lie algebras

We give here a construction process for the complex simple Lie algebras and the non-Hermitian type real forms which intersect the minimal nilpotent complex adjoint orbit, using a finite dimensional irreducible representation of the conformal group, or of some two-fold covering of it, with highest weight vector a semi-invariant of degree four. This process leads to a five-graded simple complex Lie algebra and the underlying semi-invariant is intimately related to the structure of the minimal nilpotent orbit. We also describe a similar construction process for the simple real Lie algebras of Hermitian type.     

On the geometry of the Calogero-Moser system

We discuss a special eigenstate of the quantized periodic Calogero—Moser system associated to a root system. This state has the property that its eigenfunctions, when regarded as multivalued functions on the space of regular conjugacy classes in the corresponding semisimple complex Lie group, transform under monodromy according to the complex reflection representation of the affine Hecke algebra. We show that this endows the space of conjugacy classes in question with a projective structure. For a certain parameter range this projective structure underlies a complex hyperbolic structure. If in addition a Schwarz type of integrality condition is satisfied, then it even has the structure of a ball quotient minus a Heegner divisor. For example, the case of the root system E₈ with the triflection monodromy representation describes a special eigenstate for the system of 12 unordered points on the projective line under a particular constraint.