On bisectors in quaternionic hyperbolic space (Q6051294)

Unlike the real hyperbolic space, the complex hyperbolic space \(\mathbb{H}^n_{\mathbb{C}}\) of complex dimension \(n\ge 2\) contains no totally geodesic real hypersurfaces. In \(\mathbb{H}^n_{\mathbb{C}}\), bisectors are a particular class of real hypersurfaces which are a good substitute for totally geodesic ones (a bisector is the locus of points equidistant from a particular pair of points). Although not totally geodesic, they are foliated by totally geodesic real and complex submanifolds. In this paper the authors show that some basic results about bisectors from complex hyperbolic geometry carry over to the quaternionic hyperbolic case. But in the quaternionic hyperbolic space \(\mathbb{H}^n_{\mathbb{Q}}\) the geometry of bisectors is richer: any bisector is a union of totally geodesic submanifolds of \(\mathbb{H}^n_{\mathbb{Q}}\) isometric to \(\mathbb{H}^n_{\mathbb{C}}\), intersecting in a common point (\textit{fan} decomposition) and such decomposition is not unique. Generalizing a construction of \textit{J. R. Parker} and \textit{I. D. Platis} [J. Differ. Geom. 73, No. 2, 319--350 (2006; Zbl 1100.30037)], they also introduce \textit{complex hyperbolic packs} in \(\mathbb{H}^n_{\mathbb{Q}}\), a new class of hypersurfaces which could be useful in the construction of fundamental polyhedra for discrete groups of isometries of quaternionic hyperbolic case.