Symmetric bundles and representations of Lie triple systems (Q2655925)

Recall the notion of symmetric space as a smooth manifold \(M\) together with a smooth product map \(\mu: M\times M\to M\), \((x,y)\mapsto\mu(x,y)=\sigma_x(y)\) satisfying that \(\sigma_x\) is an automorphism of \(M\) such that \(\sigma_x(x)=x\), \(\sigma_x^2=1\) and the differential \(T_x(\sigma_x)\) is the opposite of the identity of the tangent space \(T_x(M)\). The paper under reviews deals with symmetric vector bundles: they are vector bundles \(\pi: (F,\mu)\to (M,\mu')\) such that both \(F\) and \(M\) are symmetric spaces, \(\pi\) is a homomorphism of symmetric spaces and the map induced by \(\mu: F\times F\to F\) fiberwise is linear. On the other hand a derivation of a symmetric bundle \(F\) is a homomorphism of symmetric spaces \(X: M\to F\) which is also a smooth section of \(\pi\). The set of derivations in closed under sum and scalar multiplication and so is a vector space. If we fix a base point \(o\in M\) the conjugation by \(\sigma_{0_o}\) induces an involution on the space of derivations of the symmetric bundle \(F\). If we now start with a symmetric space \((M,\mu)\) with base point \(o\) and consider the tangent bundle and denote by \(g\) the derivations of the symmetric bundle \(TM\) we have \(g=h\oplus m\) for the eigenspace decomposition induced by \(\sigma_0\) and furthermore \(g\) is stable under the Lie bracket (as a vector space of vector fields on \(M\)) and \(\sigma_0\) is an involution of this Lie algebra. Thus \(m\) is a Lie triple system and via the linear bijection \(m\to T_o(M)\) this Lie triple system structure can be transferred to the tangent space. This is by definition the Lie triple systems associated to the pointed symmetric space \((M,o)\). The construction is functorial and as pointed out by the authors, plays a similar role to that of the Lie algebra of a Lie group. The following result is proved in the work: Let \(M\) be a real finite-dimensional connected simply connected symmetric space with base point \(o\). Let \(m\) be the associated Lie triple system and \(g\) its standard imbedding with involution \(\sigma\). Then the following objects are in one-to-one correspondence: (1) (finite-dimensional) symmetric vector bundles over \(M\). (2) (finite-dimensional) \((g,\sigma)\)-modules with involution. (3) (finite-dimensional) \(m\)-modules. The bijection between (1) and (3) induces an equivalence of categories. Thus symmetric bundles are the geometric analog of representations of Lie triple systems. In section 5 the standard linear algebra constructions producing new representations from old ones are revised. In section 6 some details on geometric aspects of symmetric bundles are studied and finally in section 7 some question related to non-uniqueness of symmetric structures in the tangent bundle are boarded.