Characteristically nilpotent Lie groups with flat coadjoint orbits

Abstract: We study the existence of certain characteristically nilpotent Lie algebras with flat coadjoint orbits. Their connected, simply connected Lie groups admit square-integrable representations modulo the center. There are many examples of nilpotent Lie groups admitting families of dilations and square-integrable representations. Much less is known about examples admitting square-integrable representations for which the quotient by the center does not admit a family of dilations. In this paper we construct a two-parameter family of characteristically nilpotent Lie groups $G(\alpha,\beta)$ in dimension $11$, admitting square-integrable representations modulo the center $Z$, such that $G(\alpha,\beta)/Z$ does not admit a family of dilations.