Linear independence of time-frequency shifts under a generalized Schrödinger representation (Q1348961)

Let \(\rho_\mathbb{R}\) denote the classical Schrödinger representation of the (reduced) Heisenberg group on \(L^2(\mathbb{R})\). It was conjectured that for any nonzero function \(f\) in \(L^2(\mathbb{R}\)) and any finite subset \(\Lambda\) of \(\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}\) the set of functions \[ t\to \rho_\mathbb{R} (x,y,1) f(t)=e^{2\pi iyt} f(t+x),\;(x,y)\in \Lambda, \] is linearly independent in \(L^2(\mathbb{R})\), a property of significance in Gabor analysis. This conjecture has, for example, been verified when \(\Lambda\) is contained in some discrete subgroup of \(G\). Now, let \(G\) be an arbitrary locally compact abelian group, and let \(\widehat G\) denote the dual group of \(G\). The map \((x,\omega) \to\omega (x)\) from \(G\times \widehat G\) into \(\mathbb{T}\) gives rise to \(H(G)\), the Heisenberg group associated to \(G\), and to the generalized Schrödinger representation \(\rho_G\) of \(H(G)\) on \(L^2(G)\). The underlying set of \(H(G)\) is \(G\times\widehat G\times \mathbb{T}\). Let \(\Lambda\) be a finite subset of \(G\times\widehat G\). Suppose that, for every nonzero function \(f\) in \(L^2(G)\), the functions \[ t\to\rho_G (x, \omega,1) f(t)= \omega (t)f(xt), \quad(x, \omega) \in\Lambda, \] are linearly independent in \(L^2(G)\). The author shows that then the elements of \(\Lambda\) have to be pairwise different modulo the closed subgroup consisting of all compact elements of \(G\times \widehat G\) (Theorem 1). The converse is established under the hypothesis that \(\Lambda\) is contained in \(K\times A(K, \widehat G)\), where \(K\) is a uniform lattice in \(G\) and \(A(K,\widehat G)\) is the annihilator of \(K\) in \(\widehat G\) (Theorem 2). The proofs of both theorems exploit the structure theory of locally compact abelian groups and proceed by reduction to compactly generated abelian Lie groups.