Annihilator varieties, adduced representations, Whittaker functionals, and rank for unitary representations of \(GL(n)\) (Q1941770)

The important notion of ``derivatives'' for irreducible smooth representations of general linear groups over non-Archimedean local fields was introduced in [\textit{J. N. Bernstein}, Lect. Notes Math. 1041, 50--102 (1984; Zbl 0541.22009); \textit{I. N. Bernstein} and \textit{A. V. Zelevinsky}, Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 10, 441--472 (1977; Zbl 0412.22015)]. The Archimedean analog of ``highest derivatives'' was defined in [\textit{S. Sahi}, Compos. Math. 72, No. 1, 67--86 (1989; Zbl 0693.22006) ] for all irreducible unitary representations. Using Sahi's ``highest derivatives'' iteratively, the authors define the depth composition of an irreducible unitary representation of \(\operatorname{GL}_n(\mathbb{R})\) or \(\operatorname{GL}_n(\mathbb{C})\), and get a number of interesting results: (a) they prove that the depth composition equals the partition of \(n\) corresponding to the associated variety of the representation; (b) using Vogan's classification of irreducible unitary representations of \(\operatorname{GL}_n(\mathbb{R})\) and \(\operatorname{GL}_n(\mathbb{C})\), they calculate the ``highest derivatives'' for (almost) all irreducible unitary representations; (c) they relate the depth composition to degenerate Whittaker functionals; (d) they prove that the Howe rank is determined by the depth composition. In a later paper of the authors with A. Aizenbud, some results of this paper will be refined and extended to non-necessarily unitary representations.