Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-59/3/d/solution

Because is projective twistor space, the printed column represents the line , not a distinguished nonzero vector. Its stabilizer subgroup consists of matrices whose first column is a nonzero multiple of :
The block form is necessary to preserve the line, and conversely every such determinant-one matrix preserves it. By transitivity, the orbit map is onto . Its two values agree precisely when , equivalently when . This gives the homogeneous space identification
The dimensions also agree: , while the free and parameters give ; the quotient has dimension three.
This coset space is not a quotient group, because is not a normal subgroup. For example . Let have upper-left block and identity on the other two coordinates. Then but sends to , so it is not in . Thus multiplying coset representatives does not define a well-defined group operation.
If instead one required the literal vector to be fixed, one would have and ; its quotient would be , not . The projective reading is required by the printed target quotient and the flag manifold definition.

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