Polar actions on the complex hyperbolic plane (Q1941075)

Let \(M\) be a Riemannian manifold and \(I(M)\) its isometry group. A connected closed subgroup \(G\) of \(I(M)\) is said to act polarly on \(M\) if there exists a connected closed submanifold \(\Sigma\) of \(M\) that intersects all orbits of \(G\) orthogonally. Let \(\mathbb CH^2= \mathrm{SU}(1,2)/\mathrm{S}(\mathrm{U}(1)\mathrm{U}(2))\) be the complex hyperbolic plane. \(\mathbb CH^2\) is a Riemannian symmetric space of noncompact type. The authors study polar actions on \(\mathbb CH^2\). The main results of this paper give a classification of polar actions on \(\mathbb CH^2\) up to orbit equivalence. This is the first complete such classification on a nontrivial Riemannian symmetric space of noncompact type. The authors show that there are five polar actions of cohomogeneity 1 and four polar actions of cohomogeneity 2. The main contribution of the paper is the analysis of the cohomogeneity-2 case with singular orbits. The exposition is coherent.