- Plancherel theorem for spherical functions
In
mathematics , the Plancherel theorem for spherical functions is an important result in the representation theory ofsemisimple Lie group s, due in its final form toHarish-Chandra . It is a natural generalisation innon-commutative harmonic analysis of thePlancherel formula andFourier inversion formula in the representation theory of the group of real numbers in classicalharmonic analysis and has a similarly close interconnection with the theory ofdifferential equation s.It is the special case forzonal spherical function s of the generalPlancherel theorem for semisimple Lie groups, also proved by Harish-Chandra. The Plancherel theorem gives the eigenfunction expansion of radial functions for theLaplacian operator on the associatedsymmetric space . In the case ofhyperbolic space , these expansions were known from prior results of Mehler,Weyl andFock .History
The first versions of an abstract Plancherel formula for the Fourier transform on a
unimodular locally compact group "G" were due to Segal and Mautner. [ harvnb|Helgason|1984|p=492-493, historical notes on the Plancherel theorem for spherical functions] At around the same time, Harish-Chandra [harvnb|Harish-Chandra|1951] [harvnb|Harish-Chandra|1952] and Gelfand & Naimark [harvnb|Gelfand|Naimark|1948] [harvnb|Guillemin|Sternberg|1977] derived an explicit formula forSL(2,R) and complexsemisimple Lie group s, so in particular theLorentz group s. A simpler abstract formula was derived by Mautner for a "topological" symmetric space "G"/"K" corresponding to amaximal compact subgroup "K". Godement gave a more concrete and satisfactory form for positive definite spherical functions, a class ofspecial function s on "G"/"K". Since when "G" is asemisimple Lie group these spherical functions φλ were naturally labelled by a parameter λ in the quotient of aEuclidean space by the action of afinite reflection group , it became a central problem to determine explicitly thePlancherel measure in terms of this parametrization. Generalizing the ideas ofHermann Weyl from thespectral theory of ordinary differential equations , Harish-Chandra [ harvnb|Harish-Chandra|1958a] [harvnb|Harish-Chandra|1958b] introduced his celebrated c-function "c"(λ) to describe the asymptotic behaviour of the spherical functions φλ and proposed "c"(λ)–2 "d"λ as the Plancherel measure. He verified this formula for the special cases when "G" is complex or real rank one, thus in particular covering the case when "G"/"K" is ahyperbolic space . The general case was reduced to two conjectures about the properties of the c-function and the so-called spherical Fourier transform. Explicit formulas for the c-function were later obtained for a large class of classical semisimple Lie groups by Bhanu-Murthy. In turn these formulas prompted Gindikin and Karpelevič to derive a product formula [ harvnb|Gindikin|Karpelevič|1962] for the c-function, reducing the computation to Harish-Chandra's formula for the rank 1 case. Their work finally enabled Harish-Chandra to complete his proof of the Plancherel theorem for spherical functions in 1966. [harvnb|Harish-Chandra|1966, section 21]pherical functions
Let "G" be a semisimple
Lie group and "K" amaximal compact subgroup of "G". TheHecke algebra "C"c("K" "G"/"K"), consisting of compactly supported "K"-biinvariant continuous functions on "G", acts by convolution on theHilbert space "H"="L"2("G" / "K"). Because "G" / "K" is asymmetric space , this *-algebra iscommutative . The closure of its image in the operator norm is a non-unital commutativeC* algebra , so by theGelfand isomorphism can be identified with the continuous functions vanishing at infinity on itsspectrum "X". [ The spectrum coincides with that of the commutative Banach *-algebra of integrable "K"-biinvariant functions on "G" under convolution, a dense *-subalgebra of .] Points in the spectrum are given by continuous *-homomorphisms of into C, i.e. characters of .If "S"' denotes the
commutant of a set of operators "S" on "H", then can be identified with the commutant of theregular representation of "G" on "H". Now leaves invariant the subspace "H"0 of "K"-invariant vectors in "H". Moreover theAbelian von Neumann algebra it generates on "H"0 is maximal Abelian. Byspectral theory , there is an essentially unique [The measure class of μ in the sense of theRadon-Nikodym theorem is unique.]measure μ on thelocally compact space "X" and a unitary transformation "U" between "H"0 and "L"2("X", μ) which carries the operators in onto the correspondingmultiplication operator s.The transformation "U" is called the spherical Fourier transform or sometimes just the spherical transform and μ is called the
Plancherel measure . The Hilbert space "H"0 can be identified with "L"2("K""G"/"K"), the space of "K"-biinvariant square integrable functions on "G".The characters χλ of (i.e. the points of "X") can be described by positive definite spherical functions φλ on "G", via the formula
:
for "f" in "C"c("K""G"/"K"), where π("f") denotes the convolution operator in and the integral is with respect to
Haar measure on "G".The spherical functions φλ on "G" are given by Harish-Chandra's formula:
:
In this formula:
* the integral is with respect to Haar measure on "K";
* λ is an element of "A"* =Hom("A",T) where "A" is the Abelian vector subgroup in theIwasawa decomposition "G" ="KAN" of "G";
* λ' is defined on "G" by first extending λ to a character of the solvable subgroup "AN", using the group homomorphism onto "A", and then setting::
:for "k" in "K" and "x" in "AN", where Δ"AN" is the modular function of "AN".
* Two different characters λ1 and λ2 give the same spherical function if and only if λ1 = λ2·"s", where "s" is in the
Weyl group of "A"::
:the quotient of the
normaliser of "A" in "K" by itscentraliser , afinite reflection group .It follows that
* "X" can be identified with the quotient space "A"*/"W".
Harish-Chandra's c-function
Notes
References
*citation|first=Jean|last=Dieudonné|authorlink=Jean Dieudonné|title=Treatise on Analysis, Vol. VI|publisher=Academic Press|year=1978|id =ISBN 0-12-215506-8
*citation|first=I.M.|last=Gelfand|authorlink=Israel Gelfand|first2=M.A.|last2=Naimark|authorlink2=Mark Naimark|year=1948| title= An analog of Plancherel's formula for the complex unimodular group|journal=Dokl. Akad. Nauk USSR|volume=63|pages=609-612
*citation|first=S.G.|last=Gindikin|first2=F.I.|last2=Karpelevič|title=Plancherel measure of Riemannian symmetric spaces of non-positive curvature|year=1962|volume=145|journal=Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR|pages=252-254
*citation|first=Victor|last=Guillemin|authorlink=Victor Guillemin|first2=Shlomo|last2=Sternberg|authorlink2=Shlomo Sternberg|title=Geometric Asymptotics|publisher=American Mathematical Society|year=1977
id=ISBN 0821816330, Appendix to Chapter VI, "The Plancherel Formula for Complex Semisimple Lie Groups".
*citation|last=Harish-Chandra|authorlink=Harish-Chandra|title=Plancherel formula for complex semisimple Lie groups|journal=Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|year=1951|volume=37|pages=813-818|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/88521
*citation|last=Harish-Chandra|authorlink=Harish-Chandra|title=Plancherel formula for the 2 x 2 real unimodular group|journal=Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|year=1952|volume=38|pages=337-342|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/88737
*Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra |authorlink=Harish-Chandra| title=Spherical functions on a semisimple Lie group. I | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2372786 | id=MathSciNet | id = 0094407 | year=1958a | journal=American Journal of Mathematics | issn=0002-9327 | volume=80 | pages=241–310
*Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra |authorlink=Harish-Chandra| title=Spherical Functions on a Semisimple Lie Group II | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2372772 | publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press | year=1958b | journal=American Journal of Mathematics | issn=0002-9327 | volume=80 | issue=3 | pages=553–613
*citation|last=Harish-Chandra|authorlink=Harish-Chandra|year=1966|title=Discrete series for semisimple Lie groups, II.|journal=Acta Mathematica|volume=116|pages=1-111|doi=10.1007/BF02392813, section 21.
*citation|first=Sigurdur|last=Helgason|title=Groups and Geometric Analysis. Integral Geometry, Invariant Differential Operators and Spherical Functions|publisher=Academic Press|year=1984|id=ISBN 0-12-338301-3
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