Bounded isometries and homogeneous quotients (Q522464)

In [Comment. Math. Helv. 37, 65--101 (1962; Zbl 0113.15302)], the author stated the following conjecture: Let \(M\) be a connected, simply connected Riemannian homogeneous manifold and let \(M\to \Gamma\backslash M\) be a Riemannian covering. Then \(\Gamma\backslash M\) is homogeneous if and only if every \(\gamma\in\Gamma\) is an isometry of constant displacement on \(M\). This means that it moves each point the same distance. In [Math. Ann. 150, 136--149 (1963; Zbl 0189.22101)], \textit{H. Freudenthal} named them \textit{Clifford-Wolf isometries} and this term is most often used. The conjecture has been proved for various classes of Riemannian homogeneous manifolds such as symmetric spaces, Stiefel manifolds, etc. In the present paper, the author gives an explicit description of the bounded displacement isometries of a class of spaces that includes the Riemannian nilmanifolds. This class of spaces consists of metric spaces (and thus includes Finsler manifolds) on which an exponential solvable Lie group acts transitively by isometries. The bounded isometries are proved to be of constant displacement. Their characterization gives further evidence for the truth of his conjecture. The description of bounded isometries in this paper gives an alternative proof of an old result of \textit{J. Tits} [Topology 3, 97--107 (1964; Zbl 0131.03101)] on bounded automorphisms of semisimple Lie groups. The topic of constant displacement isometries has an interesting history, starting with Clifford's use of quaternions in non-Euclidean geometry, and a historical note is quite interesting.