A weak qualitative uncertainty principle for compact groups (Q1409648)

Let \(G\) be a unimodular (second countable) locally compact group of type I equipped with a left Haar measure \(m_G\), and let \(\widehat G\) be the dual space of \(G\), i.e. the set of equivalence classes of irreducible unitary representations of \(G\). On \(\widehat G\) there is a unique measure \(\mu_G\), called the Plancherel measure, which is linked to \(m_G\) by the Plancherel formula. For \(f\in L^1(G)\), let \[ A_f= \{x\in G: f(x)\neq 0\}\quad\text{and}\quad B_f= \{\pi\in\widehat G: \pi(f)\neq 0\}. \] Qualitative uncertainty principles state that \(f\) has to be zero provided that \(m_G(A_f)\) and \(\mu_G(B_f)\) are comparatively small in some sense, and there is an extensive literature on various such principles. The one studied in this paper is the weak qualitative uncertainty principle (weak QUP) which says that for any \(f\in L^1(G)\), the condition that \(m_G(A_f)\mu_G(B_f)< 1\) forces \(f\) to be zero. This weak QUP is known to hold when \(G\) is abelian. The author investigates the weak QUP for compact groups. Denoting by \(G_0\) the connected component of the identity, the first main result (Theorem 1) is that \(G\) satisfies the weak QUP if and only if \(G/G_0\) is abelian. The proof involves projective limit arguments and explicit construction of appropriate functions on finite quotients of \(G/G_0\). This result naturally leads to the question of which values the product \(m_G(A_f)\mu_G(B_f)\) can attain when \(f\) ranges over all nonzero functions in \(L^1(G)\). The author conjectures that these values are bounded away from zero precisely when \(G/G_0\) has an abelian subgroup of finite index. It is shown that the condition on \(G/G_0\) is sufficient, and that in this case a lower bound is given by the minimum of all numbers \(1/\dim\pi\), \(\pi\in \widehat{G/G_0}\) (Theorem 2). Necessity is established in some special cases. In addition, the problem is studied of whether the above lower bound is best possible.