Isometric actions on spheres with an orbifold quotient (Q303589)

The authors classify all representations of compact connected Lie groups \(G\) on Euclidean spaces whose induced action on the unit sphere \(\mathbb{S}^n\) has an orbit space \(\mathbb{S}^n/G\) isometric to a Riemannian orbifold. The main result of the paper is the following theorem and its corollaries: Let a compact Lie group \(G\) act effectively and isometrically on the unit sphere \(\mathbb{S}^n\). Let \(\rho : G^0 \longrightarrow\mathrm{SO}(n + 1)\) be the corresponding representation of the identity component. The quotient \(\mathbb{S}^n/G\) is a Riemannian orbifold if and only if one of the following cases occurs for \(\rho\): {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[1.] The representation \(\rho\) is polar; \item[2.] \(G^0\) acts almost freely on \(\mathbb{S}^n\); thus \(G^0 = U(1)\) or \(G^0 =\mathrm{SU}(2)\), and \(\rho\) is a sum of irreducible even-dimensional representations; \item[3.] \(\rho\) has cohomogeneity \(3\); \item[4.] \(\rho\) is one of the representations listed in Table 1. \end{itemize}} Corollary 1: Let \(\rho\) be an orthogonal representation of a compact Lie group \(G\) on a Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\). Assume that the quotient \(X = \mathbb{S}^n/G\) is a Riemannian orbifold. Then the universal orbi-covering \(\widetilde{X}\) of \(X\) is either a weighted complex or quaternionic projective space, or \(\widetilde{X}\) has constant curvature \(1\) or \(4\). Corollary 2. Let \(X = \mathbb{S}^n/G\) be a Riemannian orbifold. If \(G\) has rank at least \(2\) and the representation is not polar, then the dimension \(k\) of \(X\) satisfies \(2 \leq k \leq 5\).