Flat affine or projective geometries on Lie groups (Q267401)

The authors study Lie groups \(G\) which admit a left invariant affine structure (i.e. an invariant flat torsion free connection) or an invariant projective structure (a class of invariant connections with the same geodesics which contains a flat torsion free connection). The authors prove that a Lie group \(G\) admits a flat invariant projective structure if and only if there is a homomorphism \(\rho:G \to\mathrm{PL}(n+1, \mathbb R)=\mathrm{Aut}(\mathbb RP^n)\) into the projective group such that the group \(\rho(G)\) has an open orbit with discrete isotropy in the projective space \(\mathbb RP^n\). The authors prove the existence of flat invariant projective structures on the Lie group of affine transformations \(\mathrm{Aff}(G, \nabla)\) for some Lie groups \(G\) with a flat torsion free left invariant connection \(\nabla\). This gives a partial positive answer to a question by the first author about the existence of invariant flat projective structures on the group of affine transformations of a Lie group with an affine invariant structure. It is shown the the affine group of the line \(\mathrm{Aff}(\mathbb R)\) admits infinitely many non-isomorphic flat affine structures and that each group of affine transformations preserving these structures admits a left invariant symplectic structure, and therefore a flat left invariant affine structure. The authors describe also explicitly flat left invariant affine structures on some Lie groups associated with flat Hessian structures, flat Lorentzian structures, affine symplectic structures, and Kähler structures.