Spectral theory of approximate lattices in nilpotent Lie groups

We consider approximate lattices in nilpotent Lie groups. With every such approximate lattice one can associate a hull dynamical system and, to every invariant measure of this system, a corresponding unitary representation. Our results concern both the spectral theory of the representation and the topological dynamics of the system. On the spectral side we construct explicit eigenfunctions for a large collection of central characters using weighted periodization against a twisted fiber density function. We construct this density function by establishing a parametric version of the Bombieri–Taylor conjecture and apply our results to locate high-intensity Bragg peaks in the central diffraction of an approximate lattice. On the topological side we show that under some mild regularity conditions the hull of an approximate lattice admits a sequence of continuous horizontal factors, where the final horizontal factor is abelian and each intermediate factor corresponds to a central extension. We apply this to extend theorems of Meyer and Dani–Navada concerning number-theoretic properties of Meyer sets to the nilpotent setting.

A PARAMETRIZATION OF δ-SPHERICAL FUNCTIONS ON COMMUTATIVE TRIPLES ASSOCIATED WITH NILPOTENT LIE GROUPS

Let $N$ be a connected and simply connected nilpotent Lie group, $K$ be a compact subgroup of $Aut(N)$, the group of automorphisms of $N$ and $\delta$ be a class of unitary irreducible representations of $K$. The triple $(N,K,\delta)$ is a commutative triple if the convolution algebra $\mathfrak{U}_{\delta}^{1}(N)$ of $\delta$-radial integrable functions is commutative. In this paper, we obtain first a parametrization of $\delta$ spherical functions by means of the unitary dual $\widehat{N}$ and then an inversion formula for the spherical transform of $F\in \mathfrak{U}_{\delta}^{1}(N)$.

Conformal Killing forms on 2-step nilpotent Riemannian Lie groups

We study left-invariant conformal Killing 2- or 3-forms on simply connected 2-step nilpotent Riemannian Lie groups. We show that if the center of the group is of dimension greater than or equal to 4, then every such form is automatically coclosed (i.e. it is a Killing form). In addition, we prove that the only Riemannian 2-step nilpotent Lie groups with center of dimension at most 3 and admitting left-invariant non-coclosed conformal Killing 2- and 3-forms are the following: The Heisenberg Lie groups and their trivial 1-dimensional extensions, endowed with any left-invariant metric, and the simply connected Lie group corresponding to the free 2-step nilpotent Lie algebra on 3 generators, with a particular 1-parameter family of metrics. The explicit description of the space of conformal Killing 2- and 3-forms is provided in each case.

Generalized Ricci flow on nilpotent Lie groups

We define solitons for the generalized Ricci flow on an exact Courant algebroid. We then define a family of flows for left-invariant Dorfman brackets on an exact Courant algebroid over a simply connected nilpotent Lie group, generalizing the bracket flows for nilpotent Lie brackets in a way that might make this new family of flows useful for the study of generalized geometric flows such as the generalized Ricci flow. We provide explicit examples of both constructions on the Heisenberg group. We also discuss solutions to the generalized Ricci flow on the Heisenberg group.