The fixed point set of the inverse involution on a Lie group

Abstract

The inverse involution on a Lie group $G$ is the periodic $2$ transformation $\gamma $ that sends each element $g\in G$ to its inverse $g^{-1}$. The variety of the fixed point set ${\rm Fix}(\gamma )$ is of importance for the relevances with Morse function on the Lie group $G$, and the $G$-representations of the cyclic group $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$. In this paper we develop an approach to calculate the diffeomorphism types of the fixed point sets ${\rm Fix}(\gamma)$ for the simple Lie groups.