Extending tensors on polar manifolds (Q303617)

A proper isometric action of a Lie group \(G\) on a Riemannian manifold \(M\) is polar if it has a section, i.e. a submanifold \(\Sigma\subset M\), intersecting all \(G\)-orbits perpendicularly. This gives rise to an isometry \(\Sigma/W\to M/G\) of orbifolds, where \(W\) is the Weyl group of \(\Sigma\). Restriction (and orthogonal projection) maps \(G\)-invariant tensor fields on \(M\) to \(W\)-invariant tensor fields on \(\Sigma\) of the same type. The main result (Theorem 1) of the paper is that this is surjective, i.e. any tensor field on the section \(\Sigma\) invariant under the Weyl group \(W\) extends to a \(G\)-invariant tensor field on \(M\). A tensor field on \(\Sigma\) with a certain symmetry, can be extended to one with the same symmetry (e.g. alternating, symmetric, Schur functors; Corollary 1). One can also extend Riemannian metrics (Theorem 2). By means of a \(G\)-invariant partition of unity, the slice theorem reduces the above extension problem to one about multivariable invariant functions on a polar \(G\)-representation \(V\). The proof then follows from the multivariable version of the Chevalley Restriction Theorem, i.e. the surjectivity of the restriction \(\mathbb{R}[V^m]^G\to\mathbb{R}[\Sigma^m]^W\). The paper concludes showing that a symmetric \(2\)-tensor field on a vector space \(\Sigma\) invariant under a finite group \(W\) generated by reflections is a sum of terms of the form \(a\,\mathrm{Hessian}(b)\) with \(W\)-invariant functions \(a,b\) (Theorem 4).