Triviality of scalar linear type isotropy subgroup by passing to an alternative canonical form of a hypersurface
Volume 70 / 1998
Abstract
The Chern-Moser (CM) normal form of a real hypersurface in $ℂ^N$ can be obtained by considering automorphisms whose derivative acts as the identity on the complex tangent space. However, the CM normal form is also invariant under a larger group (pseudo-unitary linear transformations) and it is this property that makes the CM normal form special. Without this additional restriction, various types of normal forms occur. One of them helps to give a simple proof of a (previously complicated) theorem about triviality of the scalar linear type isotropy subgroup of a nonquadratic hypersurface. An example of an analogous nontrivial subgroup for a 2-codimensional CR surface in $ℂ^4$ is constructed. We also consider the question whether the group structure that is induced on the family of normalisations to the CM normal form via the parametrisation of the isotropy automorphism group of the underlining hyperquadric coincides with the natural composition operation on the biholomorphisms.
