On the isotropy subalgebras of Lie algebras of conformal vector fields (Q764522): Difference between revisions

From the introduction: It is shown that the results of Beig and Capocci can be extended to yield a criterion for the reducibility of (any subset of) a conformal isotropy algebra. This will be based on a study of the correspondence between the conformal algebra of \(M\) and the algebra of infinitesimal automorphisms of the normal conformal connection which is defined on the principal prolongation of the bundle of conformal frames over \(M\). The meaning of the conditions to be proved will be seen in terms of a family of isomorphisms from a conformal isotropy algebra into the Lie algebra of the structure group of this prolongation. A surprisingly simple lemma will further reveal that a conformal isotropy algebra is locally reducible to a homothetic algebra whenever its members are simultaneously linearisable at the common zero, a condition which is clearly necessary for such a reduction. In the case of an indefinite metric, very few general theorems about the existence of irreducible conformal vector fields seem to be known. It is shown that a Lorentzian manifold admitting such a vector field need not be conformally flat. A method of construction will be described, and two four-dimensional examples will be given. One of them admits a conformal vector field whose zeroes form a null cone in a three-dimensional Lorentzian submanifold, and the metric is not conformally flat on the future and past of the vertex of this cone but is flat elsewhere. In the case of a positive definite metric, a new proof is proposed of a result due to Alekseevski, which asserts the existence of a special neighbourhood for a fixed point of a 1-parameter group of essential conformal transformations. This will be used to show that, if a conformal vector field on a Riemannian manifold is not isometric with respect to some conformal metric on a neighbourhood of a given point, then that point is an isolated zero of the vector field, and some neighbourhood of it is conformally flat. The proof uses the notion of development of a curve defined by the normal conformal connection. Some arguments in it may possibly be applied for results to be obtained in the case of an indefinite metric.