Topology and dynamics of compact plane waves (Q7017012)

A plane wave is a Lorentzian manifold which admits a light-like parallel vector field \(V\) such that the orthogonal distribution \(V^{\perp}\) defines a foliation, whose leaves are flat light-like geodesics, and \(\nabla_Т R=0\), for any \(X\) tangent to \(V^{\perp}\), where \(R\) is the Riemannian curvature tensor. \N\NThe authors study the fundamental group and the isometry group of compact locally homogeneous plane waves. Such a manifold is a quotient of a homogeneous plane wave \(X\) by a discrete subgroup of its isometry group. This quotient is called standard if the discrete subgroup is contained in a connected subgroup of the isometry group that acts properly cocompactly on \(X\). \N\NThe authors prove the existence of parallel vector fields \(V\) for a flat compact Lorentzian manifold \(M\) satisfying certain assumptions on \(M\) in the cases that \(V\) is time-like, light-like or space-like. The isometry group of a non-flat simply connected homogeneous plane wave is described. The fundamental group \(\Gamma\) of a compact quotient \(\Gamma \backslash X_{\rho}\) is completely described. More precisely, let \(X\) be a non-flat simply connected homogeneous plane wave, \(G_{\rho}\) the connected component of the isometry group of \(X\). The space \(X\) identifies with \(X_{\rho}=G_{\rho}/I\), with \(I=K\ltimes A^{+}\), where \(K\) is a closed subgroup of \(\mathrm{SO}(n)\), \(A^{+}=\mathbb{R}^{n}\) is the abelian subgroup of unipotent matrices. The authors prove that the fundamental group \(\Gamma\) of a compact quotient \(\Gamma\backslash X_{\rho}\) is virtually nilpotent, or virtually a nilpotent extension of \(\mathbb{Z}\) by a discrete subgroup of the Heisenberg group. The standardness and semi-standardness of compact locally homogeneous plane wave and some more general homogeneous structures are also investigated. The authors find conditions under which the flow of a compact locally homogeneous plane wave is equicontinuous. Some more phenomena are described using corresponding examples.