Infinite dimensional Riemannian symmetric spaces with fixed-sign curvature operator (Q748355): Difference between revisions

In this beautiful paper, the author investigates infinite dimensional Riemannian symmetric spaces modeled as Hilbert manifolds. He shows that, under the condition of a curvature operator with a fixed sign, important concepts, well-known in the theory of finite dimensional symmetric spaces, can be extended to this more general situation. Recall that an \(L^*\)-algebra is a Hilbert-Lie algebra equipped with a map \(x\mapsto x^*\) such that for any triple \(x\), \(y\) and \(z\) the equation \[ \langle [x,y], z \rangle = \langle y, [x^*, z]\rangle \] is satisfied. An orthogonal symmetric \(L^*\)-algebra is defined as the obvious generalization of a (finite dimensional) orthogonal symmetric Lie algebra to the wider class of \(L^*\)-algebras. All finite dimensional orthogonal symmetric Lie algebras are \(L^*\)-algebras. Additionally there are new infinite dimensional examples. A classification of infinite dimensional compact simple orthogonal symmetric \(L^*\)-algebras is given in table 2.3.; these algebras correspond essentially to the infinite rank examples for the \(7\) infinite families of finite dimensional compact Riemannian symmetric spaces. As in the case of finite dimensional orthogonal symmetric Lie algebras, the non-compact case is captured using duality. In this paper the author associates orthogonal symmetric \(L^*\)-algebras to Hilbert symmetric spaces of fixed sign and shows that these algebras are local isomorphism invariants (Theorem 3.15); then a classification of these spaces follows from a classification of simple orthogonal symmetric \(L^*\)-algebras. In Section 4, a detailed treatment is given to spaces of nonpositive curvature.