Geodesics on adjoint orbits of $SL(n, \mathbb{R})$

Abstract

In this paper we study geodesics on adjoint orbits of $SL(n,\mathbb{R})$ equipped with $SO(n)$-invariant metrics (maximal compact subgroup). Our main technique is translate this problem into a geometric problem in the tangent bundle of certain $SO(n)$-flag manifolds and describe the geodesics equations with respect to the Sasaki metric on tangent bundle. We also use tools of Lie Theory in order to obtain some explicit description of families of geodesics. We deal with the case of $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ in full details.