Remarks on homogeneous solitons of the \(\mathrm{G}_2\)-Laplacian flow (Q784216)

A Laplacian soliton is defined as a closed \(G_2\)-structure \(\varphi\) on a 7-manifold \(M\), which satisfies the equation \[ \nabla_\varphi\varphi=\lambda\varphi+\mathcal{L}_X\varphi,\ \lambda\in\mathbb{R},\ X\in\mathcal{T}^1_0(M), \] or equivalently, as the self-similar solution of the Laplacian flow \[ \begin{cases} \frac{\partial}{\partial t}\varphi(t)=\nabla_{\varphi(t)}\varphi(t),\\ d\varphi(t)=0,\\ \varphi(0)=\varphi_0, \end{cases} \] where \(\nabla_\varphi\) is the Hodge Laplacian of the Riemannian metric induced by \(\varphi\). All examples of Laplacian solitons obtained up to the reviewed paper are on seven-dimensional, connected, simply connected solvable Lie groups, endowed with a left-invariant closed \(G_2\)-structure. The paper under review shows for the first time the existence of expanding algebraic Laplacian solitons on non-solvable Lie groups. Moreover, it is known from [\textit{J. Lauret} and \textit{M. Nicolini}, ``Ricci pinched \(G_2\)-structures on Lie groups'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1902.06375}] that every left-invariant extremally Ricci pinched \(G_2\)-structure on a solvable Lie group is a steady algebraic soliton, but the authors of the reviewed paper provide an example of a steady soliton which is not an extremally Ricci pinched \(G_2\)-structure. Thus, they construct the first left-invariant closed \(G_2\)-structure which satisfies the equation \(\nabla_\varphi\varphi=\mathcal{L}_X\varphi\) with respect to a left-invariant vector field \(X\) on a simply connected solvable Lie group.