Homogeneous geodesics in the flag manifold \(\mathrm{SO}(2l+1)/U(l-m)\times \mathrm{SO}(2m+1)\) (Q2469537)

A geodesic in a homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifold is called homogeneous if it is an orbit of an one-parameter group of isometries. A homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifold whose geodesics are all homogeneous is called a g.o. manifold. In the present paper, the author studies Riemannian flag manifolds of the form \(\text{SO}(2l+1)/U(p)\times \text{SO}(2m+1)\) (with \(p=l-m\)) and homogeneous geodesics in these manifolds with respect to various \(\text{SO}(2l+1)\)-invariant metrics. He shows that the manifold \(\text{SO}(2l+1)/U(l)\) (for \(m=0\)) is g.o. with respect to any \(\text{SO}(2l+1)\)-invariant metric. For \(m>0\), the manifold is g.o. only if the metric is the multiple of the standard metric (and in this case it is naturally reductive). The examples of Riemannian g.o. manifolds \(\text{SO}(2l+1)/U(l)\) are important, because they provide an infinite series of (compact) g.o. manifolds which are not naturally reductive. Before, for such manifolds, only 6-dimensional examples from the classification by \textit{O. Kowalski} and \textit{L. Vanhecke} [Boll. Unione Mat. Ital., VII. Ser., B 5, No. 1, 189--246 (1991; Zbl 0731.53046)], the 7-dimensional nilpotent example by \textit{C. Gordon} [Prog. Nonlinear Differ. Equ. Appl. 20, 155--174 (1996; Zbl 0861.53052)] (which is not quoted in the paper), the 7-dimensional compact examples by the reviewer, \textit{O. Kowalski} and \textit{S. Nikcevic} [Differ. Geom. Appl. 21, No. 1, 65--78 (2004; Zbl 1050.22011)] and the H-type groups in dimensions 13, 14, 15, 23 and 31 (see [the reviewer and \textit{O. Kowalski}, Math. Nachr. 254--255, 87--96 (2003; Zbl 1019.22004)] or [the reviewer, Suppl. Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo, II. Ser. 69, 77--88 (2002; Zbl 1025.53019)] for more information) were known. In the paper, the low-dimensional examples \(\text{SO}(5)/U(1)\times \text{SO}(3)\) and \(\text{SO}(7)/U(2)\times \text{SO}(3)\) (which are not g.o. manifolds) are studied in more detail. The reviewer would like to mention the paper [``Structure of geodesics in the flag manifold \(\text{SO}(7)/U(3)\)'', Differential Geometry and its Applications, Proc. Conf., in Honour of Leonhard Euler, Olomouc, August 2007, World Scientific, 89--98 (2008)], in which he studies the example \(\text{SO}(7)/U(3)\) (which is a g.o. manifold) in detail by a different method, the so-called geodesic graph.