Symmetric Spaces with Rectangular Unit Lattices, Revisited

Abstract: We give a new proof of a theorem of Loos stating that a Riemannian symmetric space X with rectangular unit lattice is a symmetric R-space. For this we construct explicitly an isometric extrinsically symmetric embedding of X in a Euclidean space which reveals X as a standardly embedded symmetric R-space. We further determine the root systems, Euclidean root data, fundamental groups and eigenvalues of the Laplacian of symmetric spaces with rectangular unit lattice in a direct way.