Modular spin representations of the symmetric group

We consider the problem of characterizing projective representations that admit frame vectors with the maximal span property, a property that allows for an algebraic recovering for the phase-retrieval problem. For a given multiplier $$\mu $$ of a finite abelian group G, we show that the representation dimension of any irreducible $$\mu $$ -projective representation of G is exactly the rank of the symmetric multiplier matrix associated with $$\mu $$ . With the help of this result we are able to prove that every irreducible $$\mu $$ -projective representation of a finite abelian group G admits a frame vector with the maximal span property, and obtain a complete characterization for all such frame vectors. Consequently the complement of the set of all the maximal span frame vectors for any projective unitary representation of any finite abelian group is Zariski-closed. These generalize some of the recent results about phase-retrieval with Gabor (or STFT) measurements.

In this chapter, we establish some basic facts on Clifford theory for induced projective representations. We follow quite closely the exposition for the case of ordinary representations in Chap. 2 and we give the first applications of the theory. Another fundamental application is in Sect. 10.2 on irreducible projective representations of finite Abelian groups.

The Mackey little group procedure is used to classify the projective irreducible unitary representations of the group SU(2)ΛR4. Whereas an arbitrary ordinary representation of this group plays the role of both spectral and dynamical group for the three-dimensional hydrogen atom, it is found that one of its projective representations acts as spectral group for the two-dimensional isotropic oscillator. The projective representations of the Lie algebra of SU(2)ΛR4 are treated as ordinary representations of the central extension of this Lie algebra, and shift operator techniques used to obtain the matrix elements of its representatives. The connection with the isotropic oscillator is shown to be related to the realizability of the extended Lie algebra by two-boson creation and annihilation operators.

ABSTRACTThe unitary irreducible representations on a Hilbert space of the universal covering group G of the 3 + 2 deSitter group are determined, using Harish-Chandra's theory of semi-simple Lie groups. These irreducible representations of G are reduced out with respect to representations of the universal covering group K of the direct product R2 × R3 of a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional rotation group. It is convenient to distinguish between two types of irreducible representations of G, called ‘irreducible case’ and ‘reducible case’ representations. The former are more numerous in a certain sense, while the latter may be regarded as special cases.Let (j, µ) be an irreducible unitary representation of K, where j denotes the (ray) representation of R3 involved (2j is a non-negative integer) and µ that of R2 (µ is a real number). Then in an ‘irreducible case’ representation of G, each (j, µ) that occurs at all occurs with multiplicity j + ½ if 2j is odd, or j + ½ ± ½ if 2j is even. In a ‘reducible case’ representation of G, the multiplicity of the (j, µ)'s is smaller, and may even be 1 for all (j, µ)'s which occur. (The analogous problem for the 4 + 1 deSitter group has been solved by L. H. Thomas by reducing out the irreducible representations of the whole group with respect to those of the four-dimensional rotation group R4. However, each irreducible representation of the 4 + 1 deSitter group contains any irreducible representation of R4 at most once, so that the more general Harish-Chandra theory is not then needed to carry out the classification.)In an irreducible representation of G, only those irreducible representations (j, µ) of K may occur for which the fractional part of µ is fixed throughout the representation of G. This fractional part of µ helps to characterize the representations of G, as do the two polynomials in the infinitesimal elements, one of degree 2 and the other of degree 4, which generate all those polynomials which have the property of commuting with all members of the Lie algebra of G.Representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group may be obtained from representations of G by the process of contraction, as defined by Inonu and Wigner, just as representations of the former group may in turn be contracted to obtain representations of the Galilei group.

Weights for symmetric and general linear groups

Kostant’s quantization procedure is applied for constructing irreducible projective representations of a solvable Lie group from symplectic homogeneous spaces on which the group acts. When specialized to a certain class of such groups, including the exponential ones, the technique exposed in the present paper provides a complete parametrization of all irreducible projective representations.

We initiate a study of infinite tensor products of projective unitary representations of a discrete group G. Special attention is given to regular representations twisted by 2-cocycles and to projective representations associated with CCR-representations of bilinear maps.Detailed computations are presented in the case where G is a finitely generated free abelian group.We also discuss an extension problem about product type actions of G, where the projective representation theory of G plays a central role.

An eigenfunction method is applied to reduce the regular projective representations (Reps) of finite groups to obtain their irreducible projective Reps. Anti-unitary groups are treated specially, where the decoupled factor systems and modified Schur’s lemma are introduced. We discuss the applications of irreducible Reps in many-body physics. It is shown that in symmetry protected topological phases, geometric defects or symmetry defects may carry projective Rep of the symmetry group; while in symmetry enriched topological phases, intrinsic excitations (such as spinons or visons) may carry projective Rep of the symmetry group. We also discuss the applications of projective Reps in problems related to spectrum degeneracy, such as in search of models without sign problem in quantum Monte Carlo simulations.

Noninertial transformations on time–position–momentum–energy space {t, q, p, e} with invariant Born–Green metric and the symplectic metric −de ∧ dt + dp ∧ dq are studied. This group of transformations contains the Lorentz group as the inertial special case and, in the limit of small forces and velocities, reduces to the expected Hamilton transformations leaving invariant the symplectic metric and the nonrelativistic line element ds2 = −dt2. The transformations bound relative velocities by c and relative forces by b. Spacetime is no longer an invariant subspace but is relative to noninertial observer frames. In the limit of b → ∞, spacetime is invariant. Born was lead to the metric by a concept of reciprocity between position and momentum degrees of freedom and for this reason we call this reciprocal relativity. For large b, such effects will almost certainly only manifest in a quantum regime. Wigner showed that special relativistic quantum mechanics follows from the projective representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group. Projective representations of a Lie group are equivalent to the unitary representations of its central extension. The same method of projective representations for the inhomogeneous group is used to define the quantum theory in the noninertial case. The central extension of the inhomogeneous group is the cover of the quaplectic group . is the Weyl–Heisenberg group. The group, and the associated Heisenberg commutation relations central to quantum mechanics, results directly from requiring projective representations. A set of second-order wave equations result from the representations of the Casimir operators.

Spinors over a Cone, Dirac Operator, and Representations of Spin(4, 4)

With the Bondi‐Metzner‐Sachs (BMS) group in general relativity as the main motivation and example, a theorem is proved which may be described as follows. Let G be a complex semisimple, connected and simply connected Lie group with compact real form K , and let A be a metrizable, complete and locally convex real topological vector space on which there is a continuous G action. Consider the semidirect product topological group Gx s A (which is, in general, infinite‐dimensional) constructed naturally out of G and A . If the set of equivalence classes of irreducible representations of K in A satisfies certain hypotheses, then the second cohomology group of G x s A in the sense of continuous group cohomology is trivial. When G = SL (2, C ) and A is an appropriate function space of real‐valued functions of the 2‐sphere endowed with a specific G action (e.g. A may consist of C k , k ⩾ 3, real‐valued functions defined on the 2‐sphere), the semidirect product group is the universal cover of the BMS group. The theorem implies the existence of lifting of the projective unitary representations of the BMS group to the linear unitary representations of its universal cover. In the quantum context when we consider massless quantum fields at null infinity of a non‐stationary, asymptotically Minkowskian space‐time, in place of the projective unitary representations of the BMS group, there is no loss of generality in considering the linear unitary representations of its universal cover instead.

The main object of this chapter is to construct and study the irreducible polynomial representations of the general linear group GL m ℂ = GL ( E ), where E is a complex vector space of dimension m . These can be formed by a basic construction in linear algebra that generalizes a well known construction of symmetric and exterior products; they make sense for any module over a commutative ring. These representations are parametrized by Young diagrams λ with at most m rows, and have bases corresponding to Young tableaux on λ with entries from [ m ]. They can also be constructed from representations of symmetric groups. Like the latter, these have useful realizations both as subspaces and as quotient spaces of naturally occurring representations, with relations given by quadratic equations. The characters of the representations are given in §8.3. To prove that these give all the irreducible representations we use a bit of the Lie group–Lie algebra story, which is sketched in this setting in §8.2. In the last section we describe some variations on the quadratic equations. In particular, we identify the sum of all polynomial representations with a ring constructed by Deruyts a century ago. A construction in linear algebra For any commutative ring R and any R -module E , and any partition λ, we will construct an R -module denoted E λ . (For applications in these notes, the case where R = ℂ, so E is a complex vector space, will suffice.)

It is shown that every continuous unitary projective representation of a Polish group can be lifted to a Borel multiplier representation (i.e., to a representation “up to a Borel factor”) and that this, in turn, can be derived from a continuous (ordinary) representation of a Polish group obtained from a central topological extension of the group considered by the multiplicative group of all complex numbers of absolute value 1. One determines the factors of all Borel multiplier representations of the Bondi-Metzner-Sacks group when the subgroup of “supertranslations” is the additive group of a separable real Hilbert space.

This third chapter presents a brief and somewhat sketchy introduction to the theory of unitary representations of reductive and semisimple Lie groups G. The basic fact for an irreducible unitary representation π of G on a Hilbert space ℋ, is that every irreducible representation к of a maximal compact subgroup K ⊂ G has multiplicity m(к, π| к) ≤ dim к. This yields up the infinitesimal character χπ: L(g)→ ℂ and the distribution character θπ: C c ∞ (G) → ℂ, and consequently the differential equations $$z({\theta _\pi }) = \,{\chi _\pi }(z){\theta _\pi }$$ for $$z \in L{\text{(g)}}$$ which are the starting point for serious harmonic analysis on G.

The theory of induced projective representations is applied to finite wreath products, yielding algorithms which add to the collection of groups for which projective representations can be computed systematically. For finite Abelian and Abelian-wreath-cyclic groups, the factor sets are determined explicitly by establishing a one-to-one correspondence between certain lower triangular matrices and the inequivalent factor sets of these two classes of groups. This correspondence is used to determine the number and degrees of the inequivalent, irreducible projective representations.