Fundamental Domains in Lorentzian Geometry
Abstract
Description
We consider discrete subgroups Gamma of the simply connected Lie group SU~(1,1), the universal cover of SU(1,1), of finite level, i.e. the subgroup intersects the centre of SU~(1,1) in a subgroup of finite index, this index is called the level of the group. The Killing form induces a Lorentzian metric of constant curvature on the Lie group SU~(1,1). The discrete subgroup Gamma acts on SU~(1,1) by left translations. We describe the Lorentz space form SU~(1,1)/Gamma by constructing a fundamental domain F for Gamma. We want F to be a polyhedron with totally geodesic faces. We construct such F for all Gamma satisfying the following condition: The image of Gamma in PSU(1,1) has a fixed point u in the unit disk of order larger than the index of Gamma. The construction depends on the group Gamma and on the orbit Gamma(u) of the fixed point u.
16 pages with 5 figures; typos corrected; introduction completed
16 pages with 5 figures; typos corrected; introduction completed