Grassmann geometry on symmetric spaces (Q701581)

Let \(M\) be a smooth manifold and \(G_k(TM)\) the Grassmann bundle over \(M\) consisting of all \(k\)-dimensional linear subspaces of the tangent bundle \(TM\) of \(M\). The isometry group \(G\) of \(M\) acts on \(G_k(TM)\) in a natural manner. For each \(V \in G_k(TM)\) denote by \(G \cdot V\) the orbit of this action containing \(V\). A natural problem is to determine all submanifolds \(S\) of \(M\) such that \(T_pS \in G \cdot V\) for all \(p \in S\). The set of all these submanifolds is called the Grassmann geometry associated to \(V\). In this paper the author considers the situation when \(M\) is an irreducible simply connected Riemannian symmetric space and \(V\) is a Lie triple system such that its orthogonal complement \(V^\perp\) is also a Lie triple system. Such a Grassmann geometry is said to be of strongly curvature-invariant type. In a series of papers, Naitoh classified for compact \(M\) all Grassmann geometries of strongly curvature-invariant type that contain non-totally geodesic submanifolds. In this paper the author proves that a Grassmann geometry of strongly curvature-invariant type on a noncompact \(M\) contains non-totally geodesic submanifolds if and only if the corresponding Grassmann geometry on the compact dual of \(M\) has this property. Thus Naitoh's classification can be transferred to the noncompact case via duality.