Compact quotients of homogeneous spaces and homotopy theory of sphere bundles

Abstract

A reductive homogeneous space $G/H$ is always diffeomorphic to the normal bundle of an orbit of a maximal compact subgroup of $G$. We prove that if $G/H$ admits compact quotients, then the sphere bundle associated to this normal bundle is fiber-homotopically trivial. We deduce that many reductive homogeneous spaces do not admit compact quotients, such as the complex spheres $\mathrm{O}(n+1,\mathbb{C})/\mathrm{O}(n,\mathbb{C})$ for all $n \notin \{1,3,7\}$, or $\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SL}(m,\mathbb{R})$ for all $n>m>1$, which solves conjectures of T. Kobayashi from the early 1990s. We also prove that if the pseudo-Riemannian hyperbolic space $\mathbf{H}^{p,q}$ of signature $(p,q)$ admits compact quotients, then $p$ must be divisible by at least $2^{\lfloor q/2\rfloor}$.