Exotic proper actions on homogeneous spaces via convex cocompact representations

Abstract: We construct a series of homogeneous spaces G/H of reductive type which admit proper actions of discrete subgroups of G isomorphic to cocompact lattices of O(n,1) (n=2,3,4) but do not admit proper actions of non-compact semisimple subgroups of G. The existence of such homogeneous spaces was previously not known even for n=2. Our construction of proper actions of discrete subgroups is based on Gu\'eritaud-Kassel's work on convex cocompact subgroups of O(n,1) and Danciger-Gu\'eritaud-Kassel's work on right-angled Coxeter groups. On the other hand, the non-existence of proper actions of non-compact semisimple subgroups is proved by the theory of nilpotent orbits and elementary combinatorics.