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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.

Every right-invariant Riemannian metric on the Heisenberg group has Killing vector fields ${\partial }_x$, ${\partial }_y+x{\partial }_z$ and ${\partial }_z$. Their Lie brackets of vector fields reproduce $[X,Y]=Z$ and the central relations. Their flows are right translations. The dual frame of the right-invariant coframe is different and has the opposite Lie-bracket sign.

Multiplying the matrices gives the Heisenberg group lawDifferentiating at the identity gives all strictly upper-triangular matrices. With $X=E_{12}$, $Y=E_{23}$ and $Z=E_{13}$, the commutator givesThis is the Heisenberg Lie algebra.

The right Maurer-Cartan form isThus the right-invariant coframe of the real Heisenberg group is ${\sigma }^1=dx$, ${\sigma }^2=dy$, ${\sigma }^3=dz-ydx$. Under a right translation,we have $d{x}^{\prime }=dx$, $d{y}^{\prime }=dy$, and $d{z}^{\prime }-y^{\prime }d{x}^{\prime }=dz-ydx$. 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 $a\mapsto R_{a^{-1}}$ is a group homomorphism, embedding a copy of $G$ into the isometry group.

The one-parameter right translations produce the Killing frame for a right-invariant Heisenberg metric:Their flows are respectively $(x+t,y,z)$, $(x,y+t,z+xt)$ and $(x,y,z+t)$. Each preserves $h$, and their Lie brackets of vector fields are $[K_X,K_Y]=K_Z$, 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 ${\partial }_x+y{\partial }_z,{\partial }_y,{\partial }_z$, and should not be substituted for these generators.

For the diagonal case, putThe Kaluza-Klein decomposition along a Killing field uses $V=h(K_X,K_X)=\alpha +\chi y^2$. Completing the square in $dx$ gives the Heisenberg metric Kaluza-Klein reduction:These depend only on the quotient coordinates $(y,z)$ and satisfy $h=V(dx+A{)}^2+\gamma$. For a diagonal indefinite metric tensor, the same expressions hold wherever $V\ne 0$; a null Killing vector field cannot be treated with this completed-square decomposition.

For the Heisenberg group law $(x,y,z)(a,b,c)=(x+a,y+b,z+c+xb)$, the right Maurer-Cartan form has coefficients $dx,dy,dz-ydx$. They satisfy $d{\sigma }^1=d{\sigma }^2=0$ and $d{\sigma }^3={\sigma }^1\wedge {\sigma }^2$. A general right-invariant Riemannian metric is a constant positive-definite symmetric matrix in this coframe.