Free group representations from vector-valued multiplicative functions. I (Q1769180)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a finitely generated noncommutative free group, and let \(\Omega\) stand for its boundary. The authors construct a large class of irreducible tempered representations of \(\Gamma\) and prove exactly when two of them are equivalent, where a unitary representation \(( \pi,\mathcal{H}) \) of \(G\) is said to be tempered if it is weakly contained in the regular representation. This class of irreducible tempered representations of \(\Gamma\) contains many previously studied representations and is closed under several natural operations. It is closed under passage to tensor products with finite dimensional representations and likewise under passage to restrictions to finite index subgroups. Although the construction does depend on the choice of a set of generators, the class of representations obtained is independent of that choice.