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3 votes
0 answers
119 views

Describing the outer automorphism of a special unitary group in terms of the Hermitian form

$\DeclareMathOperator\U{U}\DeclareMathOperator\SU{SU}\DeclareMathOperator\GL{GL}$Let $h$ be a non-degenerate Hermitian form on $\mathbb{C}^n$ with signature $(p,q)$. Let $\U_h$ denote the associated ...
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

Action of symmetric matrices under $\mathrm{O}(n)$

$\DeclareMathOperator\Sym{Sym}\DeclareMathOperator\O{O}\DeclareMathOperator\GL{GL}$Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 (it can even be $\mathbb{C}$ if you like), and let $n\in\...
2 votes
0 answers
190 views

Conjugacy classes in centralizers

Let $G$ be a complex reductive group, let $g$ be an element, and let $C$ be the connected component of its centralizer. I'm curious about what is known about the intersection of conjugacy classes in $...
0 votes
0 answers
99 views

Unimodular matrices fixing $(1, 1, \cdots, 1)$

What is known about the subgroup of $GL(n, \mathbb Z)$ fixing (under left multiplication) the vector ${(1, 1, \cdots, 1)}^T$ ('T' denotes transposition). I'm particularly interested in the case $n = 5$...
8 votes
2 answers
636 views

Bilinear forms in compact/semisimple Lie group theory

If you look up the list of compact or semisimple Lie groups, you will see that three out of four infinite families (B, C and D) are defined in terms of a bilinear form on a vector space, either ...
10 votes
1 answer
262 views

What is the hidden symmetry behind four generic planes in $\mathbb{R}^4$?

Consider the action of $\operatorname{GL}(\mathbb{R}^4)$ on the Grassmannian of 2-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{R}^4$. In experiments, I observe that four randomly drawn points in this space are ...
8 votes
1 answer
253 views

Simple Lie algebras: making subspaces 'very transversal'

Let $G$ be a Lie group or group of Lie type whose Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ is simple. Because the Lie algebra is simple, for any proper subspace $V\subset \mathfrak{g}$, there is a $g\in G$ such ...
1 vote
1 answer
528 views

Weyl group action on maximal tori

Let $G$ be a semisimple algebraic group over the complex numbers and we fix a maximal torus $T$. Let $w\in W$ be an element in the Weyl group, and let $T^{w}$ be the elements in $T$ that are fixed by $...
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Parametrization of SL(3,R)

Are there any known common parametrizations of SL(3,R)? I know that it is easy to obtain a local parametrization by just exponentiating generators from the Lie algebra, but I do not know if they are ...
6 votes
1 answer
273 views

Simultaneous triangularisation of an exterior power of a set of matrices

I'm working on some research problems relating to random matrix products, and this is taking me into areas of mathematics I've not previously studied: Lie groups, representation theory, and real ...
13 votes
4 answers
2k views

Groups of matrices in which all elements have all eigenvalues equal in modulus

I am writing a research article in which I need to use the following fact: if $G$ is a subgroup of $GL_3(\mathbb{R})$ which is irreducible in the sense that no proper nontrivial subspace of $\mathbb{R}...
4 votes
1 answer
333 views

Orbits in the adjoint representation of $SU(2,1)$

How can one describe the orbits of the Lie group $G=\mathrm{SU}(2,1)$ in its Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{su}(2,1)$ with respect to the adjoint representation?
6 votes
4 answers
658 views

Reference for an algebraic group preserving a cubic form

Let $R=k[u,v,w]$ and $p\in R$ be a cubic form. Let $G$ be the group of graded automorphisms of $R$ which preserve $p$, i.e., $G$ is the subgroup of $GL_3(k)$ consisting of elements $g$ such that $g(p) ...
3 votes
1 answer
138 views

On matrices conjugated in a faithful representation

Let $k$ an algebraically closed field. Let $O=k[[\pi]]$ and $F=k((\pi))$ and $G\rightarrow GL_{n}$ a faithful representation of a semisimple group. Let $A, B\in G(O)\cap G(F)^{rs}$ (rs for regular ...
2 votes
0 answers
212 views

Compute the discriminant for reductive groups

Consider $G=GL_{2}$ and $F=k((\pi))$, and a diagonal matrix $t=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a&0\\0&b\end{array}\right)$. The characteristic polynomial of $t$ is $X^{2}-(a+b)X+ab$, and the ...