Projective unitary representations of infinite-dimensional Lie groups (Q2002623)

The paper under review studies projective unitary representations of an infinite-dimensional Lie group \(G\), modeled on a locally convex Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}\). An important issue is that, a unitary representation \(\rho: G\to \mathrm{U}(\mathcal{H})_s\), where \(\mathcal{H}\) is a Hilbert space and \(\mathrm{U}(\mathcal{H})_s\) is the unitary group endowed with the strong operator topology, may not yield a representation at the infinitesimal level. This requires the representation \((\rho, \mathcal{H})\) to be smooth in a suitable sense. For finite-dimensional Lie groups, it is a classical result that smoothness follows from continuity. This no longer holds in the infinite-dimensional setting, for which smoothness has to be imposed as an extra condition. The authors prove the following main results. Every smooth projective unitary representation of a Lie group \(G\) as above, corresponds to a smooth unitary representation of a central extension \(G^\sharp\) of \(G\) by the circle group \(\mathbb{T}\). For a Lie group \(G\) which is 1-connected, regular and modeled on a barreled Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}\), the authors characterize which unitary representations of \(\mathfrak{g}\) integrate to a Lie group representation, in terms of the properties of the solutions to certain initial valued problems. Using these results, they further formulate the correspondence between smooth projective unitary representations of \(G\), smooth unitary representations of \(G^\sharp\), and the corresponding data on the side of its Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}^\sharp\), in terms of equivalences of suitable categories. As applications, the authors discuss (projective) unitary representations for three classes of central \(\mathbb{T}\)-extension \(G^\sharp\to G\) of locally convex Lie groups: (1) abelian groups with central extensions related to Heisenberg groups; (2) the group \(\mathrm{Diff}(\mathbb{S}^1)_+\) of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of the circle, with central extensions related to the Virasoro algebra; the (twisted) loop groups, with central extensions related to affine Kac-Moody algebras.