The diastatic exponential of a symmetric space

Abstract: Let $(M, g)$ be a real analytic Kaehler manifold. We say that a smooth map $E_p:W\to M$ from a neighborhood $W$ of the origin of $T_pM$ into $M$ is a {\em diastatic exponential} at $p$ if it satisfies $$(d \E_p)0=\id{T_pM},$$ $$D_p(\E_p (v))=g_p(v, v), \forall v\in W,$$ where $D_p$ is Calabi's diastasis function at $p$ (the usual exponential $\exp_p$ obviously satisfied these equations when $D_p$ is replaced by the square of the geodesics distance $d^2_p$ from $p$). In this paper we prove that for every point $p$ of an Hermitian symmetric space of noncompact type M there exists a globally defined diastatic exponential centered in $p$ which is a diffeomorphism and it is uniquely determined by its restriction to polydisks. An analogous result holds true in an open dense neighborhood of every point of $M^*$, the compact dual of $M$. We also provide a geometric interpretation of the symplectic duality map in terms of diastatic exponentials. As a byproduct of our analysis we show that the symplectic duality map pulls back the reproducing kernel of $M^*$ to the reproducing kernel of $M$.