On the geometry of flat pseudo-Riemannian homogeneous spaces (Q466130)

The author studies the geometry of geodesically complete flat pseudo-Riemannian homogeneous manifolds of the form \(M=\mathbb R^n_s/\Gamma\), where \(\mathbb R^n_s\) denotes \(\mathbb R^n\) endowed with a non-degenerate symmetric bilinear form of signature \((n-s,s)\) and the fundamental group \(\Gamma \subset Iso(M)\) is a 2-step nilpotent unipotent group. The study is somewhat facilitated by considering the action of the real Zariski closure \(G\) of \(\Gamma\) in \(\mathrm{Iso}(\mathbb R^n_s)\). The author shows that the \(G\)-orbits are affine subspaces and affinely diffeomorphic to \(G\) endowed with the (0)-connection. If the restriction of the symmetric bilinear form on \(\mathbb R^n_s\) to the \(G\)-orbits is non-degenerate, then \(M\) has abelian linear holonomy. If, additionally, \(G\) is not abelian, then \(G\) contains a subgroup which is isomorphic to the semidirect product of the Heisenberg Lie group \(H_3\) and its Lie algebra via the coadjoint representation \(\mathrm{Ad}^*\). Moreover, \(\mathbb R^n_s\) is a trivial algebraic principal bundle \(G \to M \to \mathbb R^{n-k}\) . As a consquence, \(M\) is a trivial smooth bundle with compact fiber \(G/\Gamma\).