Compact Symmetric Spaces, Triangular Factorization, and Cayley Coordinates

Let X be a simply connected, compact Riemannian symmetric space. We can represent X as the homogeneous space U/K, where U is a simply connected compact Lie group, and K is the fixed point set of an involution θ of U. Let G be the complexification of U. We consider the intersections of the image of the Cartan embedding Φ : U/K → U ⊂ G : uK → uu⁻ᶿ with the strata of the Birkhoff (or triangular, or LDU) decomposition G = ⫫(w∈W) ∑(G/w), ∑(G/w) = N⁻wHN⁺ relative to a θ-stable decomposition of the Lie algebra, g = n⁻ ⊕h ⊕ n⁺. For a generic element g in this intersection, g ∈ Φ(U/K) ∩ ∑(G/1), this yields a unique triangular factorization g = ldu. Our main contribution is to produce explicit formulas for the diagonal term d in classical cases, using Cayley coordinates (this choice of coordinate is motivated by considerations beyond sheer convenience). These formulas have several applications: 1) we can compute π₀(Φ(U/K) \ ∩ ∑(G/1) ) explicitly; 2) we can compute ʃ(Φ(U/K))ᵃΦ^-iλ (where ᵃΦ is the positive part of d) using elementary techniques in rank 1 cases; 3) they are useful in explicitly calculating Evens-Lu Poisson structures on U=K (see [Caine(2006)]). Our set-up involves choosing specific representations of the various u in su(n;C) that are compatible with θ; that is, θ fixes each of the subspaces n⁻; h; and n⁺ which, in our setup, always consist of strictly lower triangular, diagonal, and strictly upper triangular matrices, respectively. The formulas contain determinants such as det(1 + X), where X is in ip, the -1-eigenspace of θ acting on the Lie algebra u. Due to the relatively sparse nature of these matrices, these determinants are often easily calculable, and we illustrate this with many examples.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mathematics

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Arizona.

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Habermas, Derek

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Pickrell, Douglas M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Bressler, Paul
• Foth, Philip
• Glickenstein, David
• Otto, Michael

• SYMMETRIC SPACES
• CAYLEY
• BIRKHOFF DECOMPOSITION

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

Language dc:language.iso

EN

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195953

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/195953