The volume of tubes in Lie groups

Abstract

The problem of computing the volume of tubes in riemannian manifolds goes back to Weyl and Hotelling. Here we find explicit Taylor series for the volume of a tube in a Lie group equipped with a bi-invariant metric. The coefficients are smooth valuations, given by the convolution powers of the surface area valuation. We show that the tube coefficients can be naturally described as the unique valuations given by universal formulas through the formalism of differential graded Lie and Gerstenhaber algebras; in fact, they are generated by the gauge action on the Maurer--Cartan cone in the free differential graded Lie algebra on one generator. Moreover, we introduce a new convolution product on the corresponding free Gerstenhaber algebra which is compatible with the convolution of valuations and differential forms. To complete the picture, we show that a Lie group -- not necessarily connected -- admits a smooth bi-invariant valuation, beyond the Euler characteristic and the Haar measure, if and only if it admits a bi-invariant riemannian metric.