The gap phenomenon in parabolic geometries

Abstract

The infinitesimal symmetry algebra of any Cartan geometry has maximum dimension realized by the flat model, but often this dimension drops significantly when considering non-flat geometries, so a gap phenomenon arises. For general (regular, normal) parabolic geometries of type (G,P), we use Tanaka theory to derive a universal upper bound on the submaximal symmetry dimension. We use Kostant’s version of the Bott–Borel–Weil Theorem to show that this bound is in fact sharp in almost all complex and split-real cases by exhibiting (abstract) models. We explicitly compute all submaximal symmetry dimensions when G is any complex or split-real simple Lie group.