On Stein extensions of real symmetric spaces (Q1823351)

Let G be a connected non-compact semisimple Lie group, admitting a faithful linear representation, K its maximal compact subgroup, \(G^{{\mathbb{C}}}\) (resp. \(K^{{\mathbb{C}}})\) the complexification of G (resp. K). The real symmetric space \(M=G/K\) is identified with the orbit G(0) in \(X=G^{{\mathbb{C}}}/K^{{\mathbb{C}}}\), where 0 is the origin, \(0=e.K^{{\mathbb{C}}}\). The authors are interested in G-invariant Stein domains in X, containing M. Note that the G-action on M is proper. The main result of the paper is the following Theorem. There exists a G-invariant Stein domain \(\Omega\) \(\subset X\), containing M and such that the G-action in \(\Omega\) is proper. The proof makes use of the following construction. Let \(g={\mathfrak p}+{\mathfrak h}\) be the Cartan decomposition, \({\mathfrak u}={\mathfrak p}+i{\mathfrak h}\) the dual compact algebra, \({\mathfrak a}\subset {\mathfrak h}^ a \)maximal abelian subspace, \(\Sigma\) the root system of \({\mathfrak g}\) with respect to \({\mathfrak a}\) and W the corresponding Weyl group. Define the subset \(U^+\) of the dual compact group U by \(U^+=\{u\in U|\) (Adu)\(p\cap (i{\mathfrak h})=\{0\}\}\). Then the connected component \(D_ 0\) of \(D:=GU^+(0)\subset X\), which contains M, can be described by \[ D_ 0=G(\exp i\omega_ 0(0),\quad where\quad \omega_ 0:=\{H\in {\mathfrak a}| \quad | \alpha (H)| <\pi /2\quad for\quad all\quad \alpha \in \Sigma \}. \] One has a natural isomorphism of orbit spaces \(D_ 0/G=\omega_ 0/W.\) The authors conjecture that \(D_ 0\) is a Stein domain. Since it is not clear they use an appropriate smaller domain \(\Omega \subset D_ 0\) to prove the theorem.