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Inspired by this question about conjugation of reql analytic maps to a holomorphic function and with a group action view point we ask the following question.

The complex Lie group $H=\mathbb{C}\rtimes \mathbb{C\setminus\{0\}}$ has a standard action on $\mathbb{R}^2\simeq \mathbb{C}$ via the affine action $(b,a).z=az+b$.

Does there exis a complex or real Lie group $G\supset H$ with an effective (faithful ) action on $\mathbb{R}^2$ with real analytic diffeomorphism such that the following property hold:

The group $G$ properly contains $H$ and for every $g\in G$ the real analytic mapping $z\mapsto g.z$ is conjugate to some $z\mapsto az+b$

If the answer is positive what is a precise example? In this case what about if we add the extra assumption below

The group $G$ is not in the form of any semidirect product

Note: We add the last part of the question as a caution against existence of possible effective action $H\rtimes K$ for some Lie group $K$ please see the following comment

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    $\begingroup$ We're up to 11 edits in just 6 hours. This is excessive, and I think you should stop. If you need this many edits to get a question right, then I think that means that in the future you should spend more time polishing a question before posting it. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 3 at 21:11
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    $\begingroup$ It's a good question, you don't need to multi-edit it. Actually, the beginning, i.e. the main question, is perfectly fine and the extra (starting from "If the answer is positive..."), does add much value. $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Aug 3 at 21:20
  • $\begingroup$ @YCor Thank you for your attention. the reason for the caution of the last part of the question is that it is possible that we would have an effective action of $H\times K$ or a semidirectt product $H\rtimes K$ on the plane (for a Lie group $K$). So this would result to a possible trivial answer to the first part. But now I realize that you think the first part is not an immediate question $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 3 at 21:27
  • $\begingroup$ Just to be clear: by "is conjugate" you mean "is conjugate in $G$"? $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Aug 4 at 8:13
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    $\begingroup$ @YCor But your answer in the case of G- conjugacy would be also very welcome and appreciated $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 4 at 10:27

1 Answer 1

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The group $H$ acts transitively and primitively on $\mathbb{C}=\mathbb{R}^2$. ('Primitive' means that $H$ preserves no nontrivial foliation.) It's a consequence of the classification of transitive primitive Lie transformation groups in dimension $2$ that there are only four Lie transformation groups on $\mathbb{R}^2$ that contain $H$:

  1. $H = \mathbb{C}\rtimes \mathbb{C}^\bullet$;
  2. $H\cup cH$, where $c:\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{C}$ is conjugation: $c(z) = \bar z$;
  3. The orientation-preserving affine group, $\mathbb{R}^2\rtimes \operatorname{GL}^+(2,\mathbb{R})$; and
  4. The full affine group, $\mathbb{R}^2\rtimes \operatorname{GL}(2,\mathbb{R})$.

Of these, only $H$ itself has the property that every element is topologically conjugate to an element of $H$. (For example, every one of these groups other than $H$ contains a transformation that is not the identity but has a line of fixed points.)

Sketch of argument: Suppose that $G\supseteq H$ is a Lie group with a smooth effective left action $G\times \mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}^2$ that extends $H\times\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}^2$, and let $G_0\subset G$ be the subgroup of $G$ that preserves the origin $O=(0,0)\in\mathbb{R}^2$. Since $H$ acts transitively on $\mathbb{R}^2$, so does $G$. Thus, $\mathbb{R}^2$ is naturally identified with $G/G_0$. Since Lie group multiplication is real-analytic in appropriate coordinates, the left action $G\times G/G_0\to G/G_0$ is also real-analytic.

Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be the Lie algebra of $G$. The action of $G$ on $\mathbb{R}^2$ induces an injective homomorphism of $\mathfrak{g}$ into the Lie algebra of real-analytic vector fields on $\mathbb{R}^2$, so one can identify $\frak{g}$ with a Lie algebra of real-analytic vector fields on $\mathbb{R}^2$. By definition, there exist real-analytic coordinates $(x,y)$ on $\mathbb{R}^2$ centered on $O$ so that the Lie algebra of $H$ is spanned by the four vector fields $X = \partial/\partial x$, $Y = \partial/\partial y$, $E = x\,\partial/\partial x + y\,\partial/\partial y$, and $R = x\,\partial/\partial y - y\,\partial/\partial x$.

For each $k\ge0$, let ${\mathfrak{g}}_k\subset \mathfrak{g}$ denote the space of vector fields in $\mathfrak{g}$ of the form $Z = f\,\partial/\partial x + g\,\partial/\partial y$ where $f$ and $g$ vanish at $O=(0,0)$ to order at least $k+1$. (Thus, $E$ and $R$ lie in ${\mathfrak{g}}_0$ but not in ${\mathfrak{g}}_1$.) Then ${\mathfrak{g}}_k\supseteq {\mathfrak{g}}_{k+1}$ and $[{\mathfrak{g}}_i,{\mathfrak{g}}_j]\subseteq {\mathfrak{g}}_{i+j}$.

If $Z$ lies in ${\mathfrak{g}}_k$ but not ${\mathfrak{g}}_{k+1}$, then at least one of $[X,Z]$ or $[Y,Z]$ does not lie in ${\mathfrak{g}}_k$. Consequently, if ${\mathfrak{g}}_k={\mathfrak{g}}_{k+1}$ for some $k$, then ${\mathfrak{g}}_j={\mathfrak{g}}_{j+1}$ for all $j\ge k$, so ${\mathfrak{g}}_k$ consists of real-analytic vector fields that vanish to infinite order at $O$, implying that ${\mathfrak{g}}_k = (0)$. Let $r\ge 1$ be the least integer for which ${\mathfrak{g}}_r = (0)$. The integer $r$ is the order of the action of $G$. (I will eventually show that $G$ has order $r=1$.)

Now, $ \mathrm{ad}(E)(f\,\partial/\partial x {+} g\,\partial/\partial y)=[E,f\,\partial/\partial x {+} g\,\partial/\partial y] = (Ef{-}f)\partial/\partial x + (Eg{-}g)\partial/\partial y. $
Since $Ep = \delta p$ for a polynomial $p(x,y)$ of homogeneous degree $\delta$ in $x$ and $y$, it follows that, for $Z\in {\mathfrak{g}}_0$, $$ (\operatorname{ad}E)(\operatorname{ad}E-1)(\operatorname{ad}E-2)\cdots\bigl(\operatorname{ad}E-(r-1)\bigr)(Z) \in {\mathfrak{g}}_r = (0). $$ Thus, for any $Z = f\,\partial/\partial x + g\,\partial/\partial y\in {\frak{g}}_0$, the coefficients $f$ and $g$ are polynomials of degree at most $r$. Now, for any $Z\in {\mathfrak{g}}_0$, the elements $Z, \mathrm{ad}(E)(Z),\ldots, \bigl(\mathrm{ad}(E)\bigr)^r(Z)$ lie in $\mathfrak{g}_0$. It follows that, when one writes $Z = Z_1 + \dotsb + Z_r$ where $Z_i = f_i\,\partial/\partial x + g_i\,\partial/\partial y$ has $f_i$ and $g_i$ homogeneous of degree $i$, the individual terms $Z_1, \ldots, Z_r$ all lie in ${\mathfrak{g}}_0$. Thus, $$ {\mathfrak{g}}_0 = {\mathfrak{p}}_0 \oplus {\mathfrak{p}}_1 \oplus \dotsb \oplus {\mathfrak{p}}_{r-1} $$ where the elements of ${\mathfrak{p}}_j$ have coefficients homogeneous of degree $j+1$ in $x$ and $y$.

The Lie algebra ${\mathfrak{p}}_0$ contains $\{E,R\}$ and lies in the span of $\{x\,\partial/\partial x,\>x\,\partial/\partial y,\> y\,\partial/\partial x,\> y\,\partial/\partial y\}$, which is a copy of ${\mathfrak{gl}}(2,\mathbb{R})$. It follows that ${\mathfrak{p}}_0$ either has dimension $2$ and is spanned by $E$ and $R$ or has dimension $4$ and is equal to ${\mathfrak{gl}}(2,\mathbb{R})$. In either case, the Lie bracket pairing ${\mathfrak{p}}_0\times {\mathfrak{p}}_1\to {\mathfrak{p}}_1$ makes ${\mathfrak{p}}_1$ into a module over the Lie algebra ${\mathfrak{p}}_0$.

If ${\mathfrak{p}}_0$ is the span of $E$ and $R$, then, since $Z\in {\mathfrak{p}}_1$ implies that both $[X,Z]$ and $[Y,Z]$ must be linear combinations of $E$ and $R$, it's easy to check that such a $Z$ has to be a linear combination of $A = (x^2{-}y^2)\,\partial/\partial x + 2xy\,\partial/\partial y$ and $B = 2xy\,\partial/\partial x - (x^2{-}y^2)\,\partial/\partial y$. Moreover, if ${\mathfrak{p}}_1\not=(0)$, then it must be of dimension $2$ and spanned by these two vector fields. However, the flow of $A$ is clearly not complete (just look at its action on the line $y=0$), and all of the vector fields in $\mathfrak{g}$ must be complete. Hence ${\mathfrak{p}}_1=(0)$, and $G$ has order $1$ and the identity component of $G$ must equal $H$.

If ${\mathfrak{p}}_0 = {\mathfrak{gl}}(2,\mathbb{R})$, then ${\mathfrak{p}}_1$ must be a sum of irreducible ${\mathfrak{p}}_0$ modules. It is easy to see that the span of $xE$ and $yE$ is an irreducible ${\mathfrak{gl}}(2,\mathbb{R})$-module of dimension $2$, while the space of vector fields of the form $f_y\,\partial/\partial x - f_x\,\partial/\partial y$, where $f(x,y)$ is a homogeneous cubic polynomial, is an irreducible ${\mathfrak{gl}}(2,\mathbb{R})$-module of dimension $4$. Together these two spaces span all of the vector fields with quadratic coefficients. However, the flow of the vector field $xE$ is not complete, and the flow of the vector field $f_y\,\partial/\partial x - f_x\,\partial/\partial y$ with $f = x^2y$ is not complete. Thus, ${\mathfrak{p}}_1=(0)$ in this case as well. Thus, the action of $G$ has order $1$, and, for dimension reasons, the identity component of $G$ must be the orientation-preserving affine group $\mathbb{R}^2\rtimes \mathrm{GL}^+(2,\mathbb{R})$.

Now, in either case, the abelian subalgebra $\mathfrak{s}$ of $\mathfrak{g}$ spanned by $X$ and $Y$ is easily seen to equal the null space of the Killing form of $\mathfrak{g}$, and, hence, it is preserved by any automorphism of $\mathfrak{g}$. In particular, the subgroup $S\subset G$ of translations in $\mathbb{R}^2$ is preserved by any automorphism of the identity component of $G$.

Let $\ell\in G_0$ be any element of $G$ that fixes $O\in\mathbb{R}^2$. Since $\ell S \ell^{-1} = S$, it follows that $\ell:\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}^2$ must be a linear map. Moreover, it must normalize the identity component of the subgroup $G_0\subset\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{R})$, which is either $C^\bullet$ or $\mathrm{GL}^+(2,\mathbb{R})$. In the first case, this implies that $G=H$ or $H\cup cH$, and in the second case this implies that $G = \mathbb{R}^2\rtimes\mathrm{GL}^+(2,\mathbb{R})$ or $G = \mathbb{R}^2\rtimes\mathrm{GL}(2,\mathbb{R})$.

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    $\begingroup$ Where can this classification be found? $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Aug 4 at 13:55
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    $\begingroup$ @YCor: To modern standards of rigor, it's probably due to a combination of Goldschmidt, Olver, Fels, and/or Kamran, though that's based on Guillemin and Sternberg's reworking of Cartan's work on Lie transformation groups, itself building on Lie's original work. Certainly, if I wanted to give a short proof, I would need to refer to them, but I'd have to search to find the best literature reference. However, you don't really need that whole apparatus to prove the above statement. One can prove it by hand without too much difficulty. If there's interest I could sketch the argument. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 4 at 14:25
  • $\begingroup$ Dear Prof. Bryant Thank you very much for your very interesting answer. It would be kind of you if you expand your answer and introduce the references. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 4 at 17:17
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    $\begingroup$ @AliTaghavi: The original references are, first, É Cartan, Les sous-groupes de groupes continus de transformations, Annales scientifiques de l'É.N.S. 3 série, t. 25 (1908), p.57–194., in which Cartan refers to prior works of Lie (Nouv. Arch. t. III, 1878, p. 125–; Nouv. Arch. t. X, 1885, p. 74–; Math. Ann. t. XVI, 1888, p. 455– ). See the list at the end of Cartan's paper, but one has to sort through which are transitive, primitive, and finis. Cartan and Lie assumed everything was analytic and all variables were complex, though — defects that the more modern authors were able to remedy. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 4 at 19:01
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you a lot for the references $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 4 at 19:08

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