Commuting involutions of Lie algebras, commuting varieties, and simple Jordan algebras (Q380374)

Let \(G\) be a connected reductive algebraic group (over an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(0\)) with \(\operatorname{Lie}(G)=\mathfrak g.\) Assume that there are two commuting involutions \(\sigma_1, \sigma_2 \in G\) and let \(\mathfrak g = \bigoplus_{i,j=0,1} \mathfrak g_{ij}\) be the associated \(\mathbb Z_2 \times \mathbb Z_2\)-grading. If \(\{\alpha, \beta, \gamma \} = \{01,10,11\}\), then \([\;, \;]\) maps \(\mathfrak g_\alpha\times \mathfrak g_\beta\) into \(\mathfrak g_\gamma\), and the zero fiber of this bracket is called a \(\vec {\sigma}\)-commuting variety. The paper under review aims to develop a general theory of such varieties on the one hand and on the other hand to focus on some cases when they have especially good properties. The author shows that if \(G/G^{\sigma_1}\) is a Hermitian symmetric space of tube type, then there are three conjugate pairwise commuting involutions \(\sigma_1, \sigma_2,\) and \(\sigma_3=\sigma_1 \sigma_2.\) In this case, any \(\vec {\sigma}\)-commuting variety is isomorphic to the commuting variety of the simple Jordan algebra associated with \(\sigma_1.\) As an application, the authors shows that if \(\mathcal J\) is the Jordan algebra of symmetric matrices, then the product map \({\mathcal J \times \mathcal J\rightarrow \mathcal J}\) is equidimensional, while for all other simple Jordan algebras equidimensionality fails.