G₂ and the rolling ball

DOI10.1090/S0002-9947-2014-05977-1zbMATH Open1354.20031arXiv1205.2447OpenAlexW2132032311WikidataQ56212892 ScholiaQ56212892MaRDI QIDQ3190799FDOQ3190799

Authors: John Baez, John Huerta 

Publication date: 19 September 2014

Published in: Transactions of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Understanding the exceptional Lie groups as the symmetry groups of simpler objects is a long-standing program in mathematics. Here, we explore one famous realization of the smallest exceptional Lie group, G2. Its Lie algebra acts locally as the symmetries of a ball rolling on a larger ball, but only when the ratio of radii is 1:3. Using the split octonions, we devise a similar, but more global, picture of G2: it acts as the symmetries of a 'spinorial ball rolling on a projective plane', again when the ratio of radii is 1:3. We explain this ratio in simple terms, use the dot product and cross product of split octonions to describe the G2 incidence geometry, and show how a form of geometric quantization applied to this geometry lets us recover the imaginary split octonions and these operations.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2447

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zbMATH Keywords

buildingsrolling ballsplit octonions(2, 3, 5) distributionssplit \(\mathrm{G}_{2}\)

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Composition algebras (17A75) Groups with a (BN)-pair; buildings (20E42) Exceptional groups (20G41) Groups acting on specific manifolds (57S25) Incidence structures embeddable into projective geometries (51A45)

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Cited In (22)

• Cartan meets Chaplygin
• \(G_2\) and the rolling distribution
• Timelike duality, \(M'\)-theory and an exotic form of the Englert solution
• Cyclic Higgs bundles and minimal surfaces in pseudo-hyperbolic spaces
• DUALITY OF (2, 3, 5)-DISTRIBUTIONS AND LAGRANGIAN CONE STRUCTURES
• Geometrical applications of split octonions
• The algebra of slice functions
• Local equivalence of some maximally symmetric rolling distributions and \(SU(2)\) Pfaffian systems
• Universal equations for maximal isotropic Grassmannians
• On the gravity of dumbbell-like bodies represented by a pair of intersecting balls
• Dancing polygons, rolling balls, and the Cartan-Engel distribution
• The contact mappings of a flat \((2,3,5)\)-distribution
• Versal normal form for nonsemisimple singularities
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• A class of continuous non-associative algebras arising from algebraic groups including
• Duality on geodesics of Cartan distributions and sub-Riemannian pseudo-product structures
• A Monge normal form for the rolling distribution
• New relations between \(\mathrm G_2\) geometries in dimensions 5 and 7
• Notes on \(G_2\): the Lie algebra and the Lie group
• Geometric structures for the \(\mathsf{G}_2^\prime \)-Hitchin component
• Flat \(\mathfrak{so}(p,q)\)-connections for manifolds of non-Euclidean signature
• Homogeneous real \((2,3,5)\) distributions with isotropy

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