Irreducibility of the Laplacian eigenspaces of some homogeneous spaces

Semisimple Lie groups and their representations (22E46) Global Riemannian geometry, including pinching (53C20) Differential geometry of homogeneous manifolds (53C30) Spectral problems; spectral geometry; scattering theory on manifolds (58J50)

Abstract: For a compact homogeneous space

G / K

, we study the problem of existence of

G

-invariant Riemannian metrics such that each eigenspace of the Laplacian is a real irreducible representation of

G

. We prove that the normal metric of a compact irreducible symmetric space has this property only in rank one. Furthermore, we provide existence results for such metrics on certain isotropy reducible spaces.

Review text

Let \((M,g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold. The eigenvalue spectrum of the associated Laplace operator \(\Delta _{g}\) acting on smooth functions forms an increasing sequence of real numbers \(0=\lambda _{0}<\lambda _{1}\leq \lambda _{2}\leq \cdots \lambda _{i}\to +\infty \), where each \(\lambda _{i}\) is repeated according to its multiplicity \(\dim E_{\lambda _{i}}\), \(E_{\lambda_i}\) being the corresponding eigenspace. The manifold \((M,g)\) is called simple if \(\lambda _{i}<\lambda _{i+1}\) for all \(i\), i.e., each eigenspace is one-dimensional. A classical result by \textit{K. Uhlenbeck} [Am. J. Math. 98, 1059--1078 (1976; Zbl 0355.58017)] says that the space of simple metrics is residual in the space of smooth Riemannian metrics on \(M\) with respect to an appropriate topology. On the other side, if \(g\) is a homogeneous metric then every nonzero eigenvalue is necessarily multiple. The notion of simplicity is generalized as follows in the presence of symmetries: A compact Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) is said to be \(G\)-simple if each eigenspace \(E_{\lambda }\) of \(\Delta _{g}\), regarded as the real vector space of the corresponding real eigenfunctions, is irreducible under the action of \(G\). In [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 52, No. 2, 187--200 (2017; Zbl 1376.58010)] \textit{D. Schueth} established algebraic criteria for the existence of \(G\)-simple invariant metrics on a compact Lie group \(G\); i.e., \(M=G=G/\{e\}\) with a left-invariant metric \(g\) and \(G\) acting by left-translations and proved that the set of \(G\)-simple metrics on \(G\), if non-empty, is residual in the space of left-invariat metrics on \(G\). In the paper under review, the authors focus on \(G\)-invariant metrics on homogeneous spaces \(M=G/K\), where \(G\) is compact connected Lie group and \(K\) a closed subgroup. By generalizing Schueth's criteria from \(M=G=G/\{e\}\) with a left-invariant metric to the setting of a general homogeneous space \(M=G/K\) with \(G\)-invariant metric, the authors give a characterization of \(G\)-simplicity and prove that an irreducible symmetric space \(G/K\) has simple \(G \)-spectrum if, and only if, it has rank one. They also provide existence results for such metrics on certain isotropy reducible spaces.

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