Naturally reductive pseudo-Riemannian spaces (Q617949)

This paper deals with a construction of naturally reductive pseudo-Riemannian spaces starting from two Lie algebras \(\mathfrak h\) and \(\mathfrak d\) equipped with ad-invariant metrics and a homomorphism \(\pi:\mathfrak h\to\text{Der}(\mathfrak d)\) from \(\mathfrak h\) to the Lie algebra of skew-symmetric derivations of \(\mathfrak d\). The direct sum \(\mathfrak g=\mathfrak h\oplus\mathfrak d\oplus\mathfrak h^*\) is endowed with a Lie bracket and an ad-invariant metric that depends on the previous data. Then the connected simply connected Lie groups \(G\) and \(H\), whose Lie algebras are \(\mathfrak g\) and \(\mathfrak h\), respectively, give rise to a naturally reductive pseudo-Riemannian space \(G/H\). To verify that this construction yields a naturally reductive metric, the author provides a generalization of a criterion of \textit{B. Kostant} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 42, 354--357 (1956; Zbl 0075.31603)] to the pseudo-Riemannian realm. In addition, an explicit homogeneous structure on this space and some of its geometric properties are described. As an application, non-semisimple naturally reductive pseudo-Riemannian spaces are produced enriching this class with new examples. More precisely, these examples are non-symmetric \(6\)-dimensional \(4\)-step nilpotent. This complements a recent work of the author on the subject [\url{arXiv:0911.4067v2}], where \(2\)-step nilpotent naturally reductive pseudo-Riemannian spaces were studied.