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A Geometric Interpretation of Generalized Hurwitz--Radon Numbers Defined by Kannaka--Tojo

Differential Geometry 2026-05-14 v2 Representation Theory

Abstract

The Hurwitz--Radon number originates in the composition problem of quadratic forms and is related to the maximum number of pointwise linearly independent vector fields on spheres. Kannaka--Tojo [arXiv:2602.04544] reformulated the Hurwitz--Radon number in the setting of a real reductive Lie algebra g\mathfrak g and its faithful representation ι\iota, and introduced two natural numbers ρ(1)(g,ι)\rho^{(1)}(\mathfrak g,\iota) and ρ(2)(g,ι)\rho^{(2)}(\mathfrak g,\iota). For classical Lie algebras and their standard representations, these two numbers coincide except for a few cases. In this paper, fixing a Lie group GG and a subspace s\mathfrak{s} of g=Lie G \mathfrak g = \mathrm{Lie}~G , we define natural numbers ρG,s(M,σ)\rho_{G,\mathfrak{s}}(M,\sigma) and ρG,s±(M,σ,)\rho^{\pm}_{G,\mathfrak{s}}(M,\sigma,\nabla) for a GG-manifold (M,σ)(M,\sigma) and its affine connection \nabla. These are defined in terms of fundamental vector fields on MM. In a special case, we show that ρG,s(M,σ)\rho_{G,\mathfrak{s}}(M,\sigma) coincides with ρ(2)(g,ι)\rho^{(2)}(\mathfrak g,\iota), and that ρG,s(M,σ,)\rho^{-}_{G,\mathfrak{s}}(M,\sigma,\nabla) coincides with ρ(1)(g,ι)\rho^{(1)}(\mathfrak g,\iota). Furthermore, we show that ρG,s+(M,σ,)\rho^{+}_{G,\mathfrak{s}}(M,\sigma,\nabla) is related to Clifford structures on MM.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.00704,
  title  = {A Geometric Interpretation of Generalized Hurwitz--Radon Numbers Defined by Kannaka--Tojo},
  author = {Muneto Miyaji},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.00704},
  year   = {2026}
}

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18 pages