Realizations of inner automorphisms of order 4 and fixed points subgroups by them on the connected compact exceptional Lie group \(E_8\). I. (Q1674147)

Let \(\mathfrak {g}\) be a complex simple Lie algebra. Kac's theorem classifies all finite-order automorphisms on \(\mathfrak {g}\) up to conjugation by automorphisms. In particular if \(\mathfrak {g}\) is the exceptional Lie algebra \(\mathfrak {e}_8\), there exists an automorphism \(\gamma\) of order 4 whose fixed point set is \(\mathfrak {g}^\gamma = \mathfrak {s} \mathfrak {o}(6) + \mathfrak {s} \mathfrak {o}(10)\). This article provides the computation of \(\gamma\) and its fixed points at the Lie group level. It shows that if \(G\) is the compact Lie group of \(\mathfrak {e}_8\), then \(G^\gamma = (\text{Spin}(6) \times \text{Spin}(10)) /\mathbb {Z}_4\).