Cohomogeneity one actions on symmetric spaces of noncompact type and higher rank (Q6110354)

This paper considers cohomogeneity-one actions on (not necessarily irreducible) symmetric spaces of noncompact-type and arbitrary rank. The authors obtain a new structural result for cohomogeneity-one actions on symmetric spaces of noncompact-type, which provides a tool to deal with spaces which are reducible or of rank higher than two. More precisely, the following claim is proved. Theorem. Let \(M = G/K\) be a symmetric space of noncompact-type, and let \(H\) be a connected closed subgroup of \(G\). Then \(H\) acts on \(M\) with cohomogeneity-one if and only if the \(H\)-action is orbit equivalent to one of the following: (FH) An action inducing a regular codimension-one foliation of horospherical type; (FS) An action inducing a regular codimension-one foliation of solvable type; (CEI) The canonical extension of a cohomogeneity-one action with a totally geodesic singular orbit on an irreducible boundary component; (CER) The canonical extension of a cohomogeneity-one diagonal action on a reducible boundary component of rank two whose two factors are homothetic; (NC) An action obtained by nilpotent construction. Based on this result, the explicit classifications of cohomogeneity-one actions on symmetric spaces of noncompact-type and rank higher than two, namely on the spaces \(\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SO}_n\) and on any finite product of rank-one spaces, are obtained. As a second application of their structural result, the authors reduce the classification problem of cohomogeneity-one actions (up to orbit equivalence) on a reducible symmetric space of noncompact-type to the classification problem on each one of its irreducible factors. The result basically says that if the action is not of (FH) or (CER) types, then it is a product action.