Characterizing the absolute continuity of the convolution of orbital measures in a classical Lie algebra

Abstract

Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a compact, simple Lie algebra of dimension $d$. It is a classical result that the convolution of any $d$ non-trivial, $G$ -invariant, orbital measures is absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure on $\mathfrak{g}$ and the sum of any $d$ non-trivial orbits has non-empty interior. The number $d$ was later reduced to the rank of the Lie algebra (or rank $+1$ in the case of type $A_n$). More recently, the minimal integer $k=k(X)$ such that the $k$-fold convolution of the orbital measure supported on the orbit generated by $X$ is an absolutely continuous measure was calculated for each $X\in \mathfrak{g}$. In this paper $\mathfrak{g}$ is any of the classical, compact, simple Lie algebras. We characterize the tuples $(X_1,...,X_L)$, with $X_i\in \mathfrak{g},$ which have the property that the convolution of the $L$ -orbital measures supported on the orbits generated by the $X_i$ is absolutely continuous and, equivalently, the sum of their orbits has non-empty interior. The characterization depends on the Lie type of $\mathfrak{g}$ and the structure of the annihilating roots of the $X_i$. Such a characterization was previously known only for type $A_n$.