Classification of indefinite hyper-Kähler symmetric spaces (Q700524)

A pseudo-Riemannian manifold is a symmetric space if every point in it is an isolated fixed point of an involutive isometry of the manifold. A symmetric space is hyper-Kähler if its holonomy group is a subgroup of the pseudo-symplectic group \(Sp(p,q)\). The main result of the paper is a classification of the indefinite simply connected hyper-Kähler symmetric spaces. Let \((E,\omega,j)\) be a complex symplectic vector space of dimension \(4m\) with a quaternionic structure \(j\) so that \(\omega(jx,jy) = \overline{\omega(x,y)}\) for all \(x,y \in E\). Let \(E = E_+ \oplus E_-\) be a \(j\)-invariant Lagrangian decomposition. Such a decomposition exists if and only if the Hermitian form \(\gamma = \omega(\cdot, j\cdot)\) has real signature \((4m,4m)\). Let \(\tau\) be the real structure on \(S^{2r}E\) given by \(\tau(e_1\ldots e_{2r}) = j(e_1)\ldots j(e_{2r})\), \(e_i \in E\). Every element \(S\) in the fixed point set \((S^4E_+)^\tau\) of \(\tau\) on \(S^4E_+\) defines a hyper-Kähler symmetric space \(M_S\) in the following way: Let \(\rho\) be the real structure on \({\mathbb C}^2 \otimes E\) given by \(\rho(h \otimes e) = j_Hh \otimes je\), where \(j_H\) is the standard quaternionic structure on \({\mathbb C}^2 = {\mathbb H}\). Now define \({\mathfrak m} = ({\mathbb C}^2 \otimes E)^\rho\) and \({\mathfrak h} = \text{ span}\{S_{e,e^\prime} \mid e,e^\prime \in E\}^\tau \subset sp(E)^\tau \cong sp(m,m)\), and denote by \(\omega_H\) the standard complex symplectic form on \({\mathbb C}^2\). Considering the natural action of \({\mathfrak h}\) on \({\mathfrak m} \subset {\mathbb C}^2 \otimes E\) and the Lie bracket \({\mathfrak m} \wedge {\mathfrak m} \to {\mathfrak h}\) defined by \([h \otimes e,h^\prime \otimes e^\prime] = \omega_H(h,h')S_{e,e^\prime}\), we get a symmetric decomposition \({\mathfrak g} = {\mathfrak h} + {\mathfrak m}\), which induces a pseudo-Riemannian symmetric space \(M_S\) in the usual way. The authors establish a one-to-one correspondence between simply connected hyper-Kähler symmetric spaces up to isomorphism and orbits of the natural action of \(GL(m,{\mathbb H})\) on \((S^4E_+)^\tau\). A particular consequence is that every simply connected hyper-Kähler symmetric space has signature \((4m,4m)\) and its holonomy group is commutative. The authors also introduce the concept of complex hyper-Kähler symmetric spaces and present a classification of such spaces.