Quantum actions on discrete quantum spaces and a generalization of Clifford's theory of representations (Q1670351)

The primary objective of this paper is to generalize the Clifford theory to the setting of Woronowicz's compact quantum groups. The classical Clifford theory studies the decomposition of the restriction of a given irreducible representation of a group \(G\) to a normal subgroup \(H\subset G\). The main tool in this theory is the study of orbits of the adjoint action of \(G\) on \(\mathrm{Irr}H\), the set of (equivalence classes of) irreducible representations of \(H\). In the setting of this paper, a quantum group \(\mathbb G \) and its dual \(\hat{\mathbb G} \) are realized by the von Neumann algebras \(L^\infty (\mathbb G)\) and \(\ell^\infty(\hat{\mathbb G})\) with a distinguished Hopf algebra structure, following the language of \textit{S. L. Woronowicz} [in: Quantum symmetries/ Symétries quantiques. Proceedings of the Les Houches summer school, Session LXIV, Les Houches, France, August 1 - September 8, 1995. Amsterdam: North-Holland. 845--884 (1998; Zbl 0997.46045)] and \textit{J. Kustermans} and \textit{S. Vaes} [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 33, No. 6, 837--934 (2000; Zbl 1034.46508)]. For a compact quantum group \(\mathbb G \) and a normal closed quantum subgroup \(\mathbb H\), representations of \(\mathbb G \) and \(\mathbb H \) correspond bijectively (and functorially) to normal representations of the von Neumann algebras \(\ell^\infty(\hat{\mathbb G})\) and \(\ell^\infty(\hat{\mathbb H})\), respectively; and the restrictions of representations of \(\mathbb G\) to \(\mathbb H\) may be translated to representations applying to \(\ell^\infty(\hat{\mathbb H})\). The action on the set of irreducible representations of the subgroup can be interpreted as an action of \(\mathbb G \) on the center of the von Neumann algebra \(\ell^\infty(\hat{\mathbb H})\). In this setting of compact quantum groups, the algebra \(\ell^\infty(\hat{\mathbb H})\) can always be written as a direct sum of matrix algebras. The first part of the paper is therefore devoted to the study of the quantum group analog of actions on direct sums of von Neumann algebras and the corresponding orbits. The authors first prove a fundamental result saying that, if a compact quantum group acts ergodically on a von Neumann algebra \(N\) with a finite-dimensional direct summand, then \(N\) itself must be finite dimensional. Based on this result, for any action of a compact quantum group on a direct sum of von Neumann algebras, they introduce and study a natural relation on the index set, classically corresponding to the relation of being in the same orbit of the action. In particular, in the case of direct sums of matrix algebras, the relation has finite orbits (Theorem 4.6). This relation may be viewed as a quantum interpretation of orbits in \(\mathrm{Irr}H\). It is noteworthy that this notion is closely related to those of connectedness for compact quantum groups [\textit{S.-Z. Wang}, J. Funct. Anal. 256, No. 10, 3313--3341 (2009; Zbl 1176.46063)] and torsion-freeness for discrete quantum groups [\textit{R. Meyer}, Tbil. Math. J. 1, 165--210 (2008; Zbl 1161.18301)]. We remark that the authors also make a link between this notion and another equivalence relation on \(\mathrm{Irr} \mathbb H\) by \textit{R. Vergnioux} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 580, 101--138 (2005; Zbl 1079.46048)]. In the second part, the authors apply the previous results to give the quantum generalization of Clifford theory (Theorem 5.4). It interprets that the restriction of an irreducible representation of \(\mathbb G\) to \(\mathbb H \) is equivalent to a direct sum of irreducible representations of \(\mathbb H \) which form precisely one orbit under the action of \(\mathbb G \).