Commutative Spaces Which are Not Weakly Symmetric (Q4354187)

A connected Riemannian manifold \(M\) is said to be weakly symmetric if for any two points \(p,q\in M\) there exists an isometry of \(M\) mapping \(p\) to \(q\) and \(q\) to \(p\). This notion was introduced by \textit{A. Selberg} in [J. Indian Math. Soc., n. Ser. 20, 47--87 (1956; Zbl 0072.08201)]. This is not the original definition given by Selberg, but is equivalent to it [see \textit{J. Berndt} and \textit{L. Vanhecke}, J. Math. Soc. Japan 48, 745--760 (1996: Zbl 0877.53027)]. It is easy to see that any symmetric space is weakly symmetric. A commutative space is a Riemannian homogeneous space such that the algebra of all \(G\)-invariant (where \(G\) is the connected component of the full isometry group) differential operators is commutative. \textit{I. M. Gelfand} [Transl., II. Ser., Am. Math. Soc. 37, 39--43 (1964); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 70, 5--8 (1950; Zbl 0139.07701)] has proved that any Riemannian symmetric space is commutative. \textit{A. Selberg} [op. cit.] proved that in any weakly symmetric space the algebra of all invariant (with respect to the full isometry group) differential operators is commutative. In this paper Selberg remarks that he does not know whether the converse holds. In the present work we answer Selberg's question by representing examples of commutative spaces which are not weakly symmetric. In order to construct this family of examples we study certain modified \(H\)-type metrics on 2-step nilpotent Lie groups.