On uniqueness of submaximally symmetric parabolic geometries

Abstract

Among (regular, normal) parabolic geometries of type (G,P), there is a locally unique maximally symmetric structure and it has symmetry dimension dim(G). The symmetry gap problem concerns the determination of the next realizable (submaximal) symmetry dimension. When G is a complex or split-real simple Lie group of rank at least three or when (G,P)=(G2,P2), we establish a local classification result for all submaximally symmetric structures.