Rigidity of flag manifolds

Abstract

Let $N\subset GL(n,R)$ be the group of upper triangular matrices with $1$s on the diagonal, equipped with the standard Carnot group structure. We show that quasiconformal homeomorphisms between open subsets of $N$, and more generally Sobolev mappings with nondegenerate Pansu differential, are rigid when $n\ge 4$; this settles the Regularity Conjecture for such groups. This result is deduced from a rigidity theorem for the manifold of complete flags in $R^n$. Similar results also hold in the complex and quaternion cases.

Added citations to earlier work which had been overlooked in the previous version of the paper