Sub-semi-Riemannian geometry of general \(H\)-type groups (Q390556)

The authors study a special class of nilpotent Lie groups of step 2, that generalizes the class of so-called Heisenberg-type groups (\(H\)-type), defined by \textit{A. Kaplan} in [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 258, 147--153 (1980; Zbl 0393.35015)]. They change the presence of an inner product to an arbitrary scalar product and relate the construction to the composition of quadratic forms, and present the geodesic equation for sub-semi-Riemannian metric on nilpotent Lie groups of step 2 and solve them for the case of general \(H\)-type groups. They also present some results on sectional curvature and the Ricci tensor of semi-Riemannian general \(H\)-type groups. These researches will help us to investigate further geometric and analytic problems on semi-sub-Riemannian manifolds.