WHEN IS THE DEFORMATION SPACE $\mathscr{T}(\Gamma, H_{2n+1}, H)$ A SMOOTH MANIFOLD?

Abstract

Let G = H2n + 1 be the 2n + 1-dimensional Heisenberg group and H be a connected Lie subgroup of G. Given any discontinuous subgroup Γ ⊂ G for G/H, a precise union of open sets of the resulting deformation space [Formula: see text] of the natural action of Γ on G/H is derived since the paper of Kobayshi and Nasrin [Deformation of Properly discontinuous action of ℤk and ℝk+1, Internat. J. Math.17 (2006) 1175–1190]. We determine in this paper when exactly this space is endowed with a smooth manifold structure. Such a result is only known when the Clifford–Klein form Γ\G/H is compact and Γ is abelian. When Γ is not abelian or H meets the center of G, the parameter and deformation spaces are shown to be semi-algebraic and equipped with a smooth manifold structure. In the case where Γ is abelian and H does not meet the center of G, then [Formula: see text] splits into finitely many semi-algebraic smooth manifolds and fails to be a Hausdorff space whenever Γ is not maximal, but admits a manifold structure otherwise. In any case, it is shown that [Formula: see text] admits an open smooth manifold as its dense subset. Furthermore, a sufficient and necessary condition for the global stability of all these deformations to hold is established.