Isometry group 2026-10-06
The isometry group of a metric space consists of its bijective isometries, with composition as the group operation. For a Riemannian metric, these are the diffeomorphisms preserving the metric tensor. Right translations of a right-invariant Riemannian metric supply a faithful subgroup isomorphic to the underlying Lie group.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 51 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Multiplying the matrices gives the Heisenberg group lawDifferentiating at the identity gives all strictly upper-triangular matrices. With , and , the commutator givesThis is the Heisenberg Lie algebra.
The right Maurer-Cartan form isThus the right-invariant coframe of the real Heisenberg group is , , . Under a right translation,we have , , and . All three right-invariant differential forms are preserved.
Every right-invariant Riemannian metric is determined by an arbitrary inner product at the identity. In this coframe its most general expression isEquivalently,Products here are symmetric products. If a pseudo-Riemannian metric tensor is intended, replace positive definiteness by nondegeneracy. Since every right translation preserves the coframe, it is an isometry. The action is faithful, and is a group homomorphism, embedding a copy of into the isometry group.
The one-parameter right translations produce the Killing frame for a right-invariant Heisenberg metric:Their flows are respectively , and . Each preserves , and their Lie brackets of vector fields are , with the other two zero. This explicitly realizes the Heisenberg Lie algebra. These Killing vector fields are left-invariant vector fields; the vector fields dual to the right-invariant coframe are instead , and should not be substituted for these generators.
For the diagonal case, putThe Kaluza-Klein decomposition along a Killing field uses . Completing the square in gives the Heisenberg metric Kaluza-Klein reduction:These depend only on the quotient coordinates and satisfy . For a diagonal indefinite metric tensor, the same expressions hold wherever ; a null Killing vector field cannot be treated with this completed-square decomposition.