Suppose G is a real reductive Lie group in Harish-Chandra's class. We propose here a structure for the set Π_u(G) of equivalence classes of irreducible unitary representations of G. (The subscript u will be used throughout to indicate structures related to unitary representations.) We decompose Π_{u}(G) into disjoint subsets with a (very explicit) discrete parameter set Λ_u: Π_u(G) = \bigcup_{λ_u \in Λ_u} Π_u^{λ_u}(G). Each subset is identified conjecturally with a collection of unitary representations of a certain subgroup G(λ_u) of G. (We will give strong evidence and partial results for this conjecture.) In this way the problem of classifying Π_u(G) would be reduced (by induction on the dimension of G) to the case G(λ_u) = G.
We introduce a new notion of rank for unitary representations of semisimple groups over a local field of characteristic zero. The theory is based on Kirillov's method of orbits for nilpotent groups over local fields. When the semisimple group is classical, we prove that the new theory is essentially equivalent to Howe's theory of N-rank.
We prove that for every Bushnell-Kutzko type that satisfies a certain rigidity assumption, the equivalence of categories between the corresponding Bernstein component and the category of modules for the Hecke algebra of the type induces a bijection between irreducible unitary representations in the two categories. This is a generalization of the unitarity criterion of Barbasch and Moy for representations with Iwahori fixed vectors.
Let $G$ be the real reductive group and let $G_0$ be the identity component. Let us assume that the unitary dual $\hat{G_0}$ is known. In this paper (in Section 5) the unitary dual $\hat{G}$ is constructed. Automorphisms of $G_0$ generated by elements of $G$ are the main ingredient of the construction. If the automorphism is outer, one has to consider the corresponding intertwining operators $S$. Operators $S$ and their properties are analyzed in Section 4. Automorphisms of $g_0$ are closely related to automorphisms of $G_0$. They are investigated in Section 3. Automorphisms of so(4,4)$ are an…
We establish a transfer of unitarity for a Bernstein component of the category of smooth representations of a reductive p-adic group to the associated Hecke algebra, in the framework of the theory of types, whenever the Hecke algebra is an affine Hecke algebra with geometric parameters, in the sense of Lusztig (possibly extended by a group of automorphisms of the root datum). It is known that there is a large class of such examples (detailed in the paper). As a consequence, we establish relations between the unitary duals of different groups, in the spirit of endoscopy.
We say that a finite dimensional Lie algebra is quasi-reductive if it has a linear form whose stabilizer for the coadjoint representation, modulo the center, is a reductive Lie algebra with a center consisting of semisimple elements. Parabolic subalgebras of a semisimple Lie algebra are not always quasi-reductive (except in types A or C by work of Panyushev). The classification of quasi-reductive parabolic subalgebras in the classical case has been recently achieved in unpublished work of Duflo, Khalgui and Torasso. In this paper, we investigate the quasi-reductivity of biparabolic subalgebras…
We present a finite algorithm for computing the set of irreducible unitary representations of a real reductive group G. The Langlands classification, as formulated by Knapp and Zuckerman, exhibits any representation with an invariant Hermitian form as a deformation of one of the unitary representations in Harish-Chandra's Plancherel formula. The behavior of these deformations was determined to a first approximation in the Kazhdan-Lusztig analysis of irreducible characters; more complete information comes from the Beilinson-Bernstein proof of the Jantzen conjectures. The basic idea of our algor…
We present an application of Hodge theory towards the study of irreducible unitary representations of reductive Lie groups. We describe a conjecture about such representations and discuss some progress towards its proof.
We study the possibility of factoring a covariant distribution on reductive Lie algebras as finite sum of products of an invariant distribution by a covariant polynomial.
We prove an explicit formula for the invariant $μ(\Lg)$ for finite-dimensional semisimple, and reductive Lie algebras $\Lg$ over $\C$. Here $μ(\Lg)$ is the minimal dimension of a faithful linear representation of $\Lg$. The result can be used to study Dynkin's classification of maximal reductive subalgebras of semisimple Lie algebras.
The simplicity of the induced modules for reductive Lie algebras over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic is studied, and a necessary and sufficient condition for the simplicity is given.
I connect an old result of mine on a Lie algebra generalization of the Amitsur-Levitski theorem with equations for sheets in a reductive Lie algebra and with recent results of Kostant-Wallach on the variety of singular elements in a reductive Lie algebra.
In this paper, we established the relationship among left-invariant flat connections on Lie groups, left-symmetric algebras, Frobenius Lie algebras and étale prehomogeneous vector spaces, gave a one-to-one correspondence between the left-symmetric Lie algebras with a right identity and the étale prehomogeneous vector spaces for a Lie group, and proved that, in essence, any left-symmetric structure on a reductive Lie algebra has a right identity, which implies that the classification of flat connections on a reductive Lie group $G$ amounts to that of étale prehomogeneous vector spaces for $G$. …
A connected algebraic group Q defined over a field of characteristic zero is quasi-reductive if there is an element of its dual of reductive type, that is such that the quotient of its stabiliser by the centre of Q is a reductive subgroup of GL(q), where q=Lie(Q). Due to results of M. Duflo, coadjoint representation of a quasi-reductive Q possesses a so called maximal reductive stabiliser and knowing this subgroup, defined up to a conjugation in Q, one can describe all coadjoint orbits of reductive type. In this paper, we consider quasi-reductive parabolic subalgebras of simple complex Lie alg…
Root-reductive Lie algebras are direct limits of finite-dimensional reductive Lie algebras under injections which preserve the root spaces. It is known that a root-reductive Lie algebra is a split extension of an abelian Lie algebra by a direct sum of copies of finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras as well as copies of the three simple infinite-dimensional root-reductive Lie algebras sl_infty, so_infty, and sp_infty. As part of a structure theory program for root-reductive Lie algebras, Cartan subalgebras of the Lie algebra gl_infty were introduced and studied in a paper of Neeb and Penkov. I…
A Lie algebra is said to be generalised reductive if it is a direct sum of a semisimple Lie algebra and a commutative radical. In this paper we extend the BGG category $\mathcal{O}$ over complex semisimple Lie algebras to the category $\mathcal {O'}$ over complex generalised reductive Lie algebras. Then we make a preliminary research on the highest weight modules and the projective modules in this new category $\mathcal {O'}$, and generalize some conclusions in the classical case. As a critical difference from the complex semisimple Lie algebra case, we prove that there is no projective module…
We prove that the nilpotent commuting variety of a reductive Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field of good characteristic is equidimensional. In characteristic zero, this confirms a conjecture of Vladimir Baranovsky. As a by-product, we obtain tat the punctual (local) Hilbert scheme parametrising the ideals of colength $n$ in $k[[X,Y]]$ is irreducible over any algebraically closed field $k$.
This paper generalizes the classification in a paper of Dimitrov and Penkov of Borel subalgebras of gl_infty. Root-reductive Lie algebras are direct limits of finite-dimensional reductive Lie algebras along inclusions preserving the root spaces with respect to nested Cartan subalgebras. A Borel subalgebra of a root-reductive Lie algebra is by definition a maximal locally solvable subalgebra. The main general result of this paper is that a Borel subalgebra of an infinite-dimensional indecomposable root-reductive Lie algebra is the simultaneous stabilizer of a certain type of generalized flag in…
We show that Arthur's Paley-Wiener theorem for K-finite compactly supported smooth functions on a real reductive Lie group G of the Harish-Chandra class can be deduced from the Paley-Wiener theorem we established in the more general setting of a reductive symmetric space. In addition, we formulate an extension of Arthur's theorem to K-finite compactly supported generalized functions (distributions) on G and show that this result follows from the analogous result for reductive symmetric spaces as well.
In this paper it is shown that the wave front set of a direct integral of singular, irreducible representations of a real, reductive algebraic group is contained in the singular set. Combining this result with the results of the first paper in this series, the author obtains asymptotic results on the occurrence of tempered representations in induction and restriction problems for real, reductive algebraic groups.
Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a root-reductive Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field $\mathbb{K}$ of characteristic $0$ with a splitting Borel subalgebra $\mathfrak{b}$ containing a splitting maximal toral subalgebra $\mathfrak{h}$. We study the category $\bar{\mathcal{O}}$ consisting of all $\mathfrak{h}$-weight $\mathfrak{g}$-modules which are locally $\mathfrak{b}$-finite and have finite-dimensional $\mathfrak{h}$-weight spaces. The focus is on very special Borel subalgebras called the Dynkin Borel subalgebras. This paper serves as an initial passage to the understanding of categories $\ma…
For semisimple Lie superalgebras over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, whose category of finite dimensional super representations is semisismple, we classify all irreducible super representations for which the alternating or symmetric square representation is irreducible or decomposes into an irreducible representation and a trivial representation.
The Burger-Sarnak method shows that the restriction of an automorphic representation of a reductive group to a reductive subgroup has automorphic support. Clozel has conjectured a qualitative refinement of this result, which were first verified and quantified in the $GL_n$ case by Venkatesh. We give a proof of this conjecture in the classical group cases.
For a finite dimensional complex Lie algebra, its index is the minimal dimension of stabilizers for the coadjoint action. A famous conjecture due to Elashvili says that the index of the centralizer of an element of a reductive Lie algebra is equal to the rank. That conjecture caught attention of several Lie theorists for years. In this paper we give an almost general proof of that conjecture.
Let $G_\cpl$ be a connected complex reductive Lie group, and $G$ be a real form. Let $(π,V)$ be a finite-dimensional irreducible representation of $G$. Assume $(π,V)$ admits a $G$ invariant hermitian form. {In \cite{Signature-of-a-rep-of-reductive}, an analog of the Weyl dimension formula that instead computes the signature of the invariant form for finite dimensional representations of complex Lie groups is given. The goal of this paper is to give a short alternate proof as an application of a more general twisted character theory of \cite{Dirac-Index-and-Twisted-Characters}.
The restriction of an irreducible unitary representation $π$ of a real reductive group $G$ to a reductive subgroup $H$ decomposes into a direct integral of irreducible unitary representations $τ$ of $H$ with multiplicities $m(π,τ)\in\mathbb{N}\cup\{\infty\}$. We show that on the smooth vectors of $π$, the direct integral is pointwise defined. This implies that $m(π,τ)$ is bounded above by the dimension of the space $\operatorname{Hom}_H(π^\infty|_H,τ^\infty)$ of intertwining operators between the smooth vectors, also called symmetry breaking operators, and provides a precise relation between t…
Vogan and Barbasch-Vogan attach two similar invariants to representations of a reductive Lie group, one by an algebraic process, the other analytic. They conjectured that the two invariants determine each other in a definite manner. Here we prove the conjecture. Our arguments involve two finer invariants -- the characteristic cycles of representations -- which are interesting in their own right.
We calculate the rational cohomology of the commuting variety $X_{G, n}$ consisting of $n$-tuples of commuting elements of a compact reductive group $G$. This is done by studying a map from a related variety $Y_{G, n}$, which has easily calculated cohomology. The proof studies the fibers of the map and uses the Vietoris-Begle theorem to prove that the induced map on rational cohomology is an isomorphism.
This is the second paper of a series of papers on a version of categories $\mathcal{O}$ for root-reductive Lie algebras. Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a root-reductive Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field $\mathbb{K}$ of characteristic $0$ with a splitting Borel subalgebra $\mathfrak{b}$ containing a splitting maximal toral subalgebra $\mathfrak{h}$. For some pairs of blocks $\overline{\mathcal{O}}[λ]$ and $\overline{\mathcal{O}}[μ]$, the subcategories whose objects have finite length are equivalence via functors obtained by the direct limits of translation functors. Tilting objects can also…
Let $G$ be a real, reductive algebraic group, and let $X$ be a homogeneous space for $G$ with a non-zero invariant density. We give an explicit description of a Zariski open, dense subset of the asymptotics of the tempered support of $L^2(X)$. Under additional hypotheses, this result remains true for vector bundle valued harmonic analysis on $X$. These results follow from an upper bound on the wave front set of an induced Lie group representation under a uniformity condition.
We study cohomological induction for a pair $(\frak g,\frak k)$, $\frak g$ being an infinite dimensional locally reductive Lie algebra and $\frak k \subset\frak g$ being of the form $\frak k_0 + C_\gg(\frak k_0)$, where $\frak k_0\subset\frak g$ is a finite dimensional reductive in $\frak g$ subalgebra and $C_{\gg} (\frak k_0)$ is the centralizer of $\frak k_0$ in $\frak g$. We prove a general non-vanishing and $\frak k$-finiteness theorem for the output. This yields in particular simple $(\frak g,\frak k)$-modules of finite type over $\frak k$ which are analogs of the fundamental series of ge…
In this paper an integral transform between spaces of nonstandard test functions on the affine space of dimension n is constructed. The integral transform satisfies a summation formula of Poisson type, which is derived from an analogue of the Arthur-Selberg trace formula for the Lie algebra of n by n matrices.
We present a closed formula, analogous to the Weyl dimension formula, for the signature of an invariant Hermitian form on any finite-dimensional irreducible representation of a real reductive Lie group, assuming that such a form exists. The formula shows in a precise sense that the form must be very indefinite. For example, if an irreducible representation of $GL(n,R)$ admits an invariant form of signature $(p,q)$, then we show that $(p-q)^2 \le p+q$. The proof is an application of Kostant's computation of the kernel of the Dirac operator.
Let K be an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0. It is well known that any quasi-reductive Lie algebra is stable. However, there are stable Lie algebras which are not quasi-reductive. This raises the question, if for some particular class of non-reductive Lie algebras, there is equivalence between stability and quasi-reductivity. In particular, it was conjectured by Panyushev that these two notions are equivalent for biparabolic subalgebras of a reductive Lie algebra. In this paper, we give a positive answer to this conjecture.
Let $G$ be a connected reductive algebraic group $G$ over an algebraically closed field $k$ of prime characteristic $p$, and $\ggg=\Lie(G)$. In this paper, we study modular representations of the reductive Lie algebra $\ggg$ with $p$-character $χ$ of standard Levi-form associated with an index subset $I$ of simple roots. With aid of support variety theory we prove a theorem that a $U_χ(\ggg)$-module is projective if and only if it is a strong "tilting" module, i.e. admitting both $\cz_Q$- and $\cz^{w^I}_Q$-filtrations (to see Theorem \ref{THMFORINV}). Then by analogy of the arguments in \cite{…
We show that, for an arbitrary quasi-reductive Lie superalgebra with a triangular decomposition and a character $ζ$ of the nilpotent radical, the associated Backelin functor $Γ_ζ$ sends Verma modules to standard Whittaker modules provided the latter exist. As a consequence, this gives a complete solution to the problem of determining the composition factors of the standard Whittaker modules in terms of composition factors of Verma modules in the category $\mathcal O$. In the case of the ortho-symplectic Lie superalgebras, we show that the Backelin functor $Γ_ζ$ and its target category, respect…
This paper gives a classification of parabolic subalgebras of simple Lie algebras over $\CC$ that are complexifications of parabolic subalgebras of real forms for which Lynch's vanishing theorem for generalized Whittaker modules is non-vacuous. The paper also describes normal forms for the admissible characters in the sense of Lynch (at least in the quasi-split cases) and analyzes the important special case when the parabolic is defined by an even embedded TDS (three dimensional simple Lie algebra).
This note is a corrigendum to the previous version arXiv:0711.2735v3 published in J. Lie Theory. As it has been recently pointed out to me by Alexander Premet, Remark 3 of arXiv:0711.2735v3 is incorrect. We verify in this note thanks to recent results of Premet and Topley (see arXiv:1301.4653) that Theorem 25 of arXiv:0711.2735v3 remains correct in spite of this error.
In this paper we make a detailed comparison between the Paley-Wiener theorems of J. Arthur and P. Delorme. We prove that these theorems are equivalent from an a priori point of view. We also give an alternative formulation of the theorems in terms of the Hecke algebra of bi-K-finite distributions supported on K. Our techniques involve derivatives of holomorphic families of continuous representations and Harish-Chandra modules.
Let $G$ be a connected reductive algebraic group defined over an algebraically closed field $\mathbbm k$ of characteristic zero. We consider the commuting variety $\mathcal C(\mathfrak u)$ of the nilradical $\mathfrak u$ of the Lie algebra $\mathfrak b$ of a Borel subgroup $B$ of $G$. In case $B$ acts on $\mathfrak u$ with only a finite number of orbits, we verify that $\mathcal C(\mathfrak u)$ is equidimensional and that the irreducible components are in correspondence with the {\em distinguished} $B$-orbits in $\mathfrak u$. We observe that in general $\mathcal C(\mathfrak u)$ is not equidim…
An algebraic group is called semi-reductive if it is a semi-direct product of a reductive subgroup and the unipotent radical. Such a semi-reductive algebraic group naturally arises and also plays a key role in the study of modular representations of non-classical finite-dimensional simple Lie algebras in positive characteristic, and some other cases. Let $G$ ba a connected semi-reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $\mathbb{F}$ and $\mathfrak{g}=Lie(G)$. It turns out that $G$ has many same properties as reductive groups, such as the Bruhat decomposition. In this note, we…
If $G$ is a Lie group, $H\subset G$ is a closed subgroup, and $τ$ is a unitary representation of $H$, then the authors give a sufficient condition on $ξ\in i\mathfrak{g}^*$ to be in the wave front set of $\operatorname{Ind}_H^Gτ$. In the special case where $τ$ is the trivial representation, this result was conjectured by Howe. If $G$ is a real, reductive algebraic group and $π$ is a unitary representation of $G$ that is weakly contained in the regular representation, then the authors give a geometric description of $\operatorname{WF}(π)$ in terms of the direct integral decomposition of $π$ int…
Let $G$ be a connected, reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$ of prime characteristic $p$ and $\mathfrak{g}=Lie(G)$. In this paper, we study representations of $\mathfrak{g}$ with a $p$-character $χ$ of standard Levi form. When $\mathfrak{g}$ is of type $A_n, B_n, C_n$ or $D_n$, a sufficient condition for the irreducibility of standard parabolic baby Verma $\mathfrak{g}$-modules is obtained. This partially answers a question raised by Friedlander and Parshall in [Friedlander E. M. and Parshall B. J., Deformations of Lie algebra representations, Amer. J. Math. 112 (19…
The complex analytic methods have found a wide range of applications in the study of multiplicity-free representations. This article discusses, in particular, its applications to the question of restricting highest weight modules with respect to reductive symmetric pairs. We present a number of multiplicity-free branching theorems that include the multiplicity-free property of some of known results such as the Clebsh--Gordan--Pieri formula for tensor products, the Plancherel theorem for Hermitian symmetric spaces (also for line bundle cases), the Hua--Kostant--Schmid $K$-type formula, and the …
This paper fixes a gap in my article "Support varieties of non-restricted modules over Lie algebras of reductive groups" pointed out to me by J.C. Jantzen. It was written several years ago, but never widely circulated.
Let G_R be a real reductive Lie group acting on a manifold M. M.Kashiwara and W.Schmid in [KaSchm] constructed representations of G_R using sheaves and quasi-G_R-equivariant D-modules on M. In this article we prove an integral character formula for these representations (Theorem 1). Our main tools will be the integral localization formula recently proved in [L3] and the integral character formula proved by W.Schmid and K.Vilonen in [SchV2] (originally established by W. Rossmann in [Ro]) in the important special case when the manifold M is the flag variety of the complexified Lie algebra of G_R…
The commuting variety of a reductive Lie algebra ${\goth g}$ is the underlying variety of a well defined subscheme of $\gg g{}$. In this note, it is proved that this scheme is normal. In particular, its ideal of definition is a prime ideal.
Let $G$ be a reductive group in the Harish-Chandra class e.g. a connected semisimple Lie group with finite center, or the group of real points of a connected reductive algebraic group defined over $\R$. Let $σ$ be an involution of the Lie group $G$, $H$ an open subgroup of the subgroup of fixed points of $σ$. One decomposes the elements of $L^2(G/H)$ with the help of joint eigenfunctions under the algebra of left invariant differential operators under $G$ on $G/H$.
Let $G$ be a connected semisimple noncompact real Lie group and let $ρ: G \longrightarrow \mathrm{SL}(V)$ be a representation on a finite dimensional vector space $V$ over $\mathbb R$, with $ρ(G)$ closed in $\mathrm{SL}(V)$. Identifying $G$ with $ρ(G)$, we assume there exists a $K$-invariant scalar product $\mathtt g$ such that $G=K\exp(\mathfrak p)$, where $K=\mathrm{SO}(V,\mathtt g)\cap G$, $\mathfrak p=\mathrm{Sym}_o (V,\mathtt g)\cap \mathfrak g$ and $\mathfrak g$ denotes the Lie algebra of $G$. Here $\mathrm{Sym}_o (V,\mathtt g)$ denotes the set of symmetric endomorphisms with trace zero.…
Let $G$ be a simple simply-connected algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p>0$ with $\mathfrak{g}={\rm Lie}(G)$. We discuss various properties of nilpotent orbits in $\mathfrak{g}$, which have previously only been considered over $\mathbb{C}$. Using a combination of theoretical and computational methods, we extend to positive characteristic various calculations of de Graaf with nilpotent orbits in exceptional Lie algebras. In particular, we classify those orbits which are reachable, those which satisfy a certain related condition due to Panyushev, and deter…
We show that the Morita Frobenius number of the blocks of the alternating groups, the finite groups of Lie type in describing characteristic, and the Ree and Suzuki groups is 1. We also show that the Morita Frobenius number of almost all of the unipotent blocks of the finite groups of Lie type in non-defining characteristic is 1, and that in the remaining cases it is at most 2.
We study the coadjoint representation of contractions of reductive Lie algebras associated with symmetric decompositions. Let $\frak g=\frak g_0\oplus \frak g_1$ be a symmetric decomposition of a reductive Lie algebra $\frak g$. Then the semi-direct product of $\frak g_0$ and the $\frak g_0$-module $\frak g_1$ is a contraction of $\frak g$. We conjecture that these contractions have many properties in common with reductive Lie algebras. In particular, it is proved that in many cases the algebra of invariants is polynomial. We also discuss the so-called "codim--2 property" for coadjoint represe…
For a reductive Lie algbera over an algbraically closed field of charasteristic zero,we consider a borel subgroup $B$ of its adjoint group, a Cartan subalgebra contained inthe Lie algebra of $B$ and the closure $X$ of its orbit under $B$ in the Grassmannian.The variety $X$ plays an important role in the study of the commuting variety. In thisnote, we prove that $X$ is Gorenstein with rational singularities.
Motivated by the interesting and yet scattered developments in representation theory of Banach-Lie groups, we discuss several functional analytic issues which should underlie the notion of infinite-dimensional reductive Lie group: norm ideals, triangular integrals, operator factorizations, and amenability.
This is a preliminary version of the first chapter of a book project on the character theory of finite groups of Lie type. It provides the foundations from the general theory of reductive algebraic groups over a finite field.