On conjugation orbits of semisimple pairs in rank one (Q2335850)

The rank-one symmetric spaces of non-compact types are known to be the real, complex, quaternionic hyperbolic spaces and the Cayley plane. Classifying pairs of elements up to conjugacy in the isometry group of a rank one symmetric space of non-compact type is a problem of interest. This problem is related to the understanding of geometric structures in rank one, as well as invariant theory of linear transformations. In the present paper the authors consider the Lie groups \(\mathrm{SU}(n,1)\) and \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)\) that act as isometries of the complex and the quaternionic hyperbolic spaces, respectively. They classify pairs of semisimple elements in \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)\) and \(\mathrm{SU}(n,1)\) up to conjugacy. This gives local parametrization of the representations \(\rho\) in \(\mathrm{Hom}(F_2,G)/G\) such that both \(\rho (x)\) and \(\rho (y)\) are semisimple elements in \(G\), where \(F_2=\langle x,y\rangle\), \(G=\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)\) or \(\mathrm{SU}(n,1)\). They use the \(\mathrm{PSp}(n,1)\)-configuration space \(M(n,i,m-i)\) of ordered \(m\)-tuples of distinct points in the closure of quaternionic hyperbolic space \(\bar{\mathbb{H}}^n\), where the first \(i\) points in an \(m\)-tuple are boundary points, to classify the semisimple pairs. Further, they classify points on \(M(n,i,m-i)\).