Anti-holomorphic involutions and spherical subgroups of reductive groups (Q897143)

Let \(G\) be a connected reductive complex algebraic group and \(\sigma\) an anti-holomorphic involution on it, namely, a real structure on \(G\). A real structure \(\mu\) on a complex algebraic \(G\)-variety \(X\) is called \(\sigma\)-equivariant if \(\mu(gx)=\sigma(g)\mu(x)\) for all \(g\in G\) and \(x\in X\). The paper under review concerns the study of \(\sigma\)-equivariant real structures on spherical \(G\)-varieties, that is, with an open dense orbit for a Borel subgroup of \(G\). In particular, a special class of spherical varieties is considered, the spherical homogeneous spaces \(G/H\) with \(H\) spherically closed. Every spherical homogeneous space of this kind admits a so-called wonderful embedding, which is unique up to \(G\)-isomorphism. The author obtains existence and uniqueness of a \(\sigma\)-equivariant real structure on any spherical homogeneous space \(G/H\) (as well as on its wonderful embedding) provided \(H\) and \(\sigma(H)\) are \(G\)-conjugate and \(H\) is spherically closed. This generalizes results of \textit{D. Akhiezer} and \textit{S. Cupit-Foutou} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 693, 231--244 (2014; Zbl 1314.14101)] and \textit{D. Akhiezer} [Int. J. Math. 26, No. 12, Article ID 1550103, 13 p. (2015; Zbl 1348.14123)] which considered spherical homogeneous spaces \(G/H\) with \(H\) self-normalizing. Self-normalizing implies spherically closed, but not vice-versa. Some concrete examples of various kind are presented in detail.