The length of \(\operatorname{PU}(2, 1)\) relative to special elliptic isometries with fixed parameter (Q6187395)

This article is concerned with the decomposition of isometries of the complex hyperbolic plane \({\mathbb H}_{{\mathbb C}}^2\) into the product of special elliptic isometries, also known as complex reflections. The latter can be written as \[R_{\alpha}^p: x\mapsto (\alpha^{-2} - \alpha)\frac{\langle x, p\rangle}{ \langle p, p\rangle}p + \alpha x\] for some \(p\in {\mathbb P}V\setminus SV\) (called the center of \(R_{\alpha}^p\)) and \(\alpha\in {\mathbb S}^1\setminus \Omega\) (called the parameter of \(R_{\alpha}^p\)). Here \({\mathbb S}^1\) stands for the set of unit complex numbers, \(\Omega\) for the set of cubic roots of unity, \(V\) is a three-dimensional \({\mathbb C}\)-linear space equipped with a Hermitian form of signature \(+ + -\), and \(SV:= \{p\in {\mathbb P}V | \langle p, p\rangle = 0\}\) consists of the isotropic points of the projectivization \({\mathbb P}V:= {\mathbb P}_{\mathbb C}V\). The group of orientation-preserving isometries of \({\mathbb H}_{{\mathbb C}}^2\) is the projectivization \(PU(2, 1)\) of the special unitary group \(SU(2, 1)\) (given by the elements in \(GLV\) that preserve the Hermitian form of \(V\) and have determinant \(1\)), that is, \(PU(2, 1) = SU(2, 1)/\{1, \omega, \omega^2\}\), where \(\omega:= e^{2\pi i/3}\). Given parameters \(\alpha_1,\ldots, \alpha_n\in {\mathbb S}^1\), an isometry in \(PU(2, 1)\) is said to admit an \((\alpha_1,\ldots, \alpha_n)\)-decomposition if it has a lift \(F\in SU(2, 1)\) such that \(F = R_{\alpha_n}^{p_n}\ldots R_{\alpha_1}^{p_1}\) for points \(p_1,\ldots, p_n\in {\mathbb P}V\setminus SV\). It is said to admit an \(\alpha^{(n)}\)-decomposition for \(\alpha\in {\mathbb S}^1\setminus \Omega\) if it admits an \((\alpha,\ldots, \alpha)\)-decomposition decomposition with \(n\) terms. Given an isometry \(F\in PU(2, 1)\), the smallest number \(n\in {\mathbb N}\) such that \(F\) admits an \(α^{(n)}\)-decomposition is the \(\alpha\)-length of \(F\). The \(\alpha\)-length of \(PU(2, 1)\) is defined as the maximum of all \(\alpha\)-lengths over isometries in \(PU(2, 1)\). The main result proved:The \(\alpha\)-length of \(PU(2, 1)\) is \(4\) for any parameter \(\alpha\). The isometries that can be written as the product of two or three special elliptic isometries with parameter \(\alpha\) are described.