Matrix valued spherical functions associated to the complex projective plane (Q1604553)

The aim of this paper is to determine matrix-valued spherical functions on the complex projective plane which is realized here as the homogeneous space \(G/K\) with \(G=SU(3)\) and \(H=S(U(2) \times U(1))\). More precisely, the authors parametrize the dual space \(\widehat K\) of \(K\) by \(\mathbb{Z} \times \mathbb{Z}_+\). Then, for a given irreducible representation \((n,k) \equiv \delta \in\widehat K\) on the finite dimensional Hilbert space \(V\) with normalized character \(\chi_\delta\), a spherical function \(\psi\) of \(G\) of type \(\delta\) is defined as a continuous function \(\psi:G\to V\) with \(\psi(e)=I\) and \[ \psi(x)\psi(y) =\int_K\chi_\delta (k^{-1})\psi (xky)dk\;(x,y\in G). \] Some well-known equivalent reformulations of this definition are discussed in the paper. In order to determine all spherical functions of some given type \(\delta\), the authors consider the unique holomorphic multiplicative extension of \(\delta:K\to V\) to \(M(2,\mathbb{C})\to V\) and define the function \(\psi_\delta (g):=\delta (A(g))\), where \(A(g)\) is the left upper \(2\times 2\)-block of \(g\in G\). It turns out that \(\psi_\delta\) is a spherical function of type \(\delta\), and that the entries of matrix-valued functions \(H(g):=\psi (g)\cdot \psi_\delta (g)^{-1}\) (which are functions with singularities on \(G)\) are solutions of two systems of ordinary differential equations. As a consequence, these matrix entries are described in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions.