SU(3)-manifolds of cohomogeneity one (Q934645)

A cohomogeneity-one \(G\)-space \(M\) is a smooth manifold with a smooth action of a compact semisimple group such that the principal orbits are codimension-one submanifolds. Such a \(G\)-space has the following nice property (as shown by [\textit{P. S. Mostert}, Ann. Math. (2) 65, 447--455 (1957); errata ibid. 66, 589 (1957; Zbl 0080.16702)]) that if \(M\) is compact, then the orbit space \(M/G\) is isomorphic to the interval \([0,1]\) or \(S^1\); if \(M\) is non-compact, then \(M/G\) is isomorphic to \([0,1)\) or \({\mathbb R}\). In particular, in the case where \(M/G=[0,1]\), there are precisely two singular orbits corresponding to the endpoints of \([0,1]\). The study on such \(G\)-spaces has had an increasing development in the recent years. For example, [\textit{A. Dancer} and \textit{A. Swann}, J. Geom. Phys. 21, No.~3, 218--230 (1997; Zbl 0909.53032) and Int. J. Math. 10, No. 5, 541-570 (1999; Zbl 1066.53510)] classified cohomogeneity-one hyper-Kähler and compact quaternion-Kähler \(G\)-manifolds if \(G\) is simple or semisimple. The paper of under review considers 7- and 8-dimensional smooth manifolds \(M\) with an action of \(SU(3)\) of cohomogeneity-one, and gives the classification result in the following cases (1) \(M\) is simply connected and \(M/SU(3)=[0,1]\), and (2) \(M/G=S^1\) and the principal orbits are simply connected. In addition, the result is also applied to the study of \(SU(3)\) as a manifold, the 8-dimensional quaternion-Kähler manifolds etc.