Stratified Kaehler structures on adjoint quotients

Abstract

Given a compact Lie group, endowed with a bi-invariant Riemannian metric, its complexification inherits a Kaehler structure having twice the kinetic energy of the metric as its potential, and Kaehler reduction with reference to the adjoint action yields a stratified Kaehler structure on the resulting adjoint quotient. Exploiting classical invariant theory, in particular bisymmetric functions and variants thereof, we explore the singular Poisson-Kaehler geometry of this quotient. Among other things we prove that, for various compact groups, the real coordinate ring of the adjoint quotient is generated, as a Poisson algebra, by the real and imaginary parts of the fundamental characters. We also show that singular Kaehler quantization of the geodesic flow on the reduced level yields the irreducible algebraic characters of the complexified group.