A complete description of the antipodal set of most symmetric spaces of compact type (Q1667197)

If \(G/K\) is an irreducible symmetric space of compact type, the set \(A(p)=\{x;\;d(x,p)\geq d(y,p) \wedge y\in G/K\}\subset G/K\) is called the antipodal set of a point \(p\in G/K\). The set \(A(p)\) for \(p\in G/K\) is a union of orbits of the form \(\exp_p(\text{Ad}(K)\text{x})\) for specific \(\text{x}\in\mathfrak{p}\cong T_pG/K\). If \(G/K\) is in addition simply connected, then the description of the tangent space of the antipodal set \(\exp_{eK}(\text{Ad}(K)\text{x})\subset A(eK)\) is given explicitly. In this paper, the author analyzes the antipodal set of \(G/K\) by determining the dimensions of the orbits \(\exp_{eK}(\text{Ad}(K)\text{x})\) building the antipodal set \(A(eK)\) of symmetric spaces of compact type. The symmetric spaces the author does not deal with are those with restricted root system \(\mathfrak{a}_r\) and a non-trivial fundamental group which is not isomorphic to \(\mathbb Z_2\) or \(\mathbb Z_{r+1}\). The author presents tables showing dimensions of all orbits in all \(G/K\) with the exception of the excluded ones. For example, it is shown that the antipodal sets of the Lie groups \(\text{Spin}(2r+1)\) with \(r>5\), \(E_8\), and \(G_2\) consist only of one orbit which is of dimension \(2\)r, \(128\), and \(6\), respectively. Also, the group \(\text{SO}(2r+1)\) has an antipodal set of dimension \(2\) and the Grassmannian \(\text{Gr}_{r,r+q}(\mathbb R)\) has a \(rq\)-dimensional orbit as antipodal set if \(r\geq 5\) and \(r\neq q>0\).