Sub-Riemannian distance on the Lie group $\operatorname {SO}_0(2,1)$

Abstract

We find the distances between arbitrary elements of the Lie group SL(2) for the left invariant sub-Riemannian metric also invariant with respect to the right shifts by elements of the Lie subgroup SO(2) ⊂ SL(2), in other words, the invariant sub-Riemannian metric on the weakly symmetric space (SL(2) × SO(2))/ SO(2) of Selberg.