A note on trace fields of complex hyperbolic groups (Q399412)

Summary: We show that if \(\Gamma\) is an irreducible subgroup of \(\mathrm{SU}(2,1)\), then \(\Gamma\) contains a loxodromic element \(A\). If \(A\) has eigenvalues \(\lambda_1 = \lambda e^{i\phi}\), \(\lambda_2 = e^{-2i\phi}\), \(\lambda_3 = \lambda^{-1}e^{i\phi}\), we prove that \(\Gamma\) is conjugate in \(\mathrm{SU}(2,1)\) to a subgroup of \(\mathrm{SU}(2,1,\mathbb{Q}(\Gamma,\lambda))\), where \(\mathbb{Q}(\Gamma, \lambda)\) is the field generated by the trace field \(\mathbb{Q}(\Gamma)\) of \(\Gamma\) and \(\lambda\). It follows from this that if \(\Gamma\) is an irreducible subgroup of \(\mathrm{SU}(2,1)\) such that the trace field \(\mathbb{Q}(\Gamma)\) is real, then \(\Gamma\) is conjugate in \(\mathrm{SU}(2,1)\) to a subgroup of \(\mathrm{SO}(2,1)\). As a geometric application of the above, we get that if \(G\) is an irreducible discrete subgroup of \(\mathrm{PU}(2,1)\), then \(G\) is an \(\mathbb R\)-Fuchsian subgroup of \(\mathrm{PU}(2,1)\) if and only if the invariant trace field \(k(G)\) of \(G\) is real.