(June 8, 2018) The Classical Groups and Domains Paul Garrett
[email protected] http:=/www.math.umn.edu/egarrett/ The complex unit disk D = fz 2 C : jzj < 1g has four families of generalizations to bounded open subsets in Cn with groups acting transitively upon them. Such domains, defined more precisely below, are bounded symmetric domains. First, we recall some standard facts about the unit disk, the upper half-plane, the ambient complex projective line, and corresponding groups acting by linear fractional (M¨obius)transformations. Happily, many of the higher- dimensional bounded symmetric domains behave in a manner that is a simple extension of this simplest case. 1. The disk, upper half-plane, SL2(R), and U(1; 1) 2. Classical groups over C and over R 3. The four families of self-adjoint cones 4. The four families of classical domains 5. Harish-Chandra's and Borel's realization of domains 1. The disk, upper half-plane, SL2(R), and U(1; 1) The group a b GL ( ) = f : a; b; c; d 2 ; ad − bc 6= 0g 2 C c d C acts on the extended complex plane C [ 1 by linear fractional transformations a b az + b (z) = c d cz + d with the traditional natural convention about arithmetic with 1. But we can be more precise, in a form helpful for higher-dimensional cases: introduce homogeneous coordinates for the complex projective line P1, by defining P1 to be a set of cosets u 1 = f : not both u; v are 0g= × = 2 − f0g = × P v C C C where C× acts by scalar multiplication.