On fat sub-Riemannian symmetric spaces in codimension three (Q2489751)

A sub-Riemannian manifold is a differentiable \(n\)-manifold \(M\) together with a smooth non-integrable \(k\)-plane distribution \(\mathcal{D}\) which is equipped with a positive definite metric \(g\), \(1 < k < n\). In the paper under review, the author investigates the case of sub-Riemannian symmetric spaces with fat distributions. A distribution \(\mathcal{D}\) is called fat if for any nonzero section \(Z\) of \(\mathcal{D}\), \(TM\) is generated by \(\mathcal{D}\) and \([Z,\mathcal{D}]\). The notion of sub-Riemannian symmetric spaces was introduced by \textit{R. S.~Strichartz} [J. Differ. Geom. 24, 221--263 (1986; Zbl 0609.53021)]. A sub-Riemannian symmetric space with a fat distribution one can define as a homogeneous sub-Riemannian manifold admitting an involutive sub-Riemannian isometry at all points which is a central symmetry when restricted to the distribution. The author obtains a restricted classification theorem for \(7\)-dimensional fat sub-Riemannian symmetric spaces with codimension \(3\) distributions (Theorem 10). In the last part of the paper some examples of fat sub-Riemannian symmetric spaces of arbitrary large dimension are constructed.