Geodesics in Heisenberg groups (Q1360955)

For the Heisenberg group \(H^{2n+1}\) the author defines a left-invariant metric and computes the Levi-Civita connection and the curvature tensor. He also determines the isotropy subgroup \( \text{Iso}_0(H^{2n+1}) \). Then, equations for geodesics in \(H^{2n+1}\) are given which simplify considerably for ``horizontal'' lines. This allows to identify the set of directions of all rays emanating from 0 in \(H^{2n+1}\) with the sphere of unit horizontal directions in 0. The main result describes the ideal boundary of \(H^{2n+1}\) as a sphere with a natural CR-structure and corresponding Carnot-Carathéodory metric, that is, it is a one-point compactification of \(H^{2n-1}\) of the next dimension in a row. In particular, the ideal boundary of \(H^3\) is a circle with Tits metric. The article ends with a short discussion about the extendability of the results for the ideal boundary of the generalized Heisenberg groups as introduced by \textit{P. Piu} and \textit{M. Goze} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 119, 611-619 (1993; Zbl 0796.53053)] .