On orbits in double flag varieties for symmetric pairs

Xuhua He, Kyo Nishiyama, Hiroyuki Ochiai, Yoshiki Oshima

Published 2012-08-10, updated 2013-07-27Version 2

Let $ G $ be a connected, simply connected semisimple algebraic group over the complex number field, and let $ K $ be the fixed point subgroup of an involutive automorphism of $ G $ so that $ (G, K) $ is a symmetric pair. We take parabolic subgroups $ P $ of $ G $ and $ Q $ of $ K $ respectively and consider the product of partial flag varieties $ G/P $ and $ K/Q $ with diagonal $ K $-action, which we call a \emph{double flag variety for symmetric pair}. It is said to be \emph{of finite type} if there are only finitely many $ K $-orbits on it. In this paper, we give a parametrization of $ K $-orbits on $ G/P \times K/Q $ in terms of quotient spaces of unipotent groups without assuming the finiteness of orbits. If one of $ P \subset G $ or $ Q \subset K $ is a Borel subgroup, the finiteness of orbits is closely related to spherical actions. In such cases, we give a complete classification of double flag varieties of finite type, namely, we obtain classifications of $ K $-spherical flag varieties $ G/P $ and $ G $-spherical homogeneous spaces $ G/Q $.