Z-measures on partitions related to the infinite Gelfand pair \((S(2\infty ),H(\infty ))\) (Q2268819)

Harmonic analysis on the group \(S(\infty)\) of finite permutations of \(\mathbb{N}\) has been developed by various authors [cf. e.g., \textit{S. Kerov, A. Olshanski} and \textit{A. Vershik}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I, 316, 773--778 (1993; Zbl 0796.43005) and Invent. Math. 158, 551--642 (2004; Zbl 1057.43005)], \textit{A. Borodin} [St. Petersbg. Math. J. 12, No.~5, 733--759 (2001); translation from Algebra Anal. 12, No.~5, 28--63 (2001; Zbl 0988.43010)], \textit{A. Borodin} and \textit{G. Olshanski} [Ann. Math. (2) 161, No. 3, 1319--1422 (2005; Zbl 1082.43003)], \textit{G. Ol'shanski} [Leningr. Math. J. 1, No.~4, 983--1014 (1990); translation from Algebra Anal. 1, No.~4, 178--209 (1989; Zbl 0731.20009) and: An introduction to harmonic analysis on the infinite symmetric group. Asymptotic combinatorics with applications to mathematical physics. A European mathematical summer school held at the Euler Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia, July 9--20, 2001. Berlin: Springer. Lect. Notes Math. 1815, 127--160 (2003; Zbl 1035.05100)]. If \(G\) denotes the bisymmetric group \(G=S(\infty)\times S(\infty)\) and \(K = \{(g,g)\in G: g\in S(\infty)\}\), then \((G,K)\) is an infinite dimensional Gelfand pair in the sense of Olshanski. In the above mentioned papers of S. Kerov, A. Olshanski and A. Vershik, the authors construct a family of unitary representations \((T_z)_{z\in\mathbb C}\) of \(G\), called `generalized regular representations'. A challenging problem of infinite dimensional harmonic analysis is to obtain a decomposition of the representations \(T_z \) into irreducible components. Restrictions of characters of \(T_z\) to \(S(n)\) decompose into a weighted sum of irreducible characters \(\chi^\lambda\) of \(S(n)\), where the weights \(M_{z,\bar{z}}^{(n)}(\lambda)\) are given by a probability measure, the `\(Z\)-measure' on the set \(\mathbb Y_n\) of Young-diagrams with \(n\) boxes (defined by integer partitions). Section 2 is concerned with measures \(M_{z,z',\theta}^{(n)}\) on \(\mathbb Y_n\) and necessary conditions to obtain probabilities. For \(n<\infty\), let \(X(n)\) be the set of right cosets \(X(n)=S(2n)\backslash H(n)\), where \(H(n)\) denotes the centralizer of \(\check t\), a product of transpositions in \(S(2n)\). The homogeneous spaces \(X(n)\), \(n\in \mathbb N\), are related by canonical projections \(p_{n+1,n}\), hence the projective limit \(X = \lim\limits_{\leftarrow} X(n)\) exists (with canonical projections \(p_n:X\to X(n)\)). The author defines a family of probabilities \(\mu_t^{(n)}, t>0\), on \(X(n)\) which is preserved by \(p_{n+1,n}\), hence the limit \(\mu_t\) on \(X\) exists. These measures are quasi-invariant on \(X\) with respect to the action of \(S(2\infty)\) (defined as \(\varprojlim S(2n)\)). For \(z\neq 0\) the author introduces new representations \(T_{z,1/2}\) similar to \(T_z\), defined by a cocycle \(C : X\times S(2\infty) \to \mathbb C\) of the action of \(S(2\infty)\) on \(X\). In fact, the representation is first defined on \(X(n)\), for finite \(n\), and extended to \(X\) as inductive limit. For all \(n\), the set of functions \(C(S(2n), H(n))\) on \(S(2n)\) which are bi-invariant by \(H(n)\) (hence representable as functions on the double coset space \(S(2n)//H(n)\)) is, endowed with a scalar product, isomorphic to \(L^2(\mu_t^{(n)})^{H(n)}\), the subspace of \(H(n)\)-invariant \(L^2\)-functions on \(X(n)\). Now the spherical functions with respect to \(T_{z,1/2}\) are weighted sums of zonal spherical functions of the Gelfand pair \((S(2n), H(n))\), where the weights are given by a probability measure \(M_{z,1/2}^{(n)}\) on \(\mathbb Y_n\), called 'Z-measure' of the representation \(T_{z,1/2}\). It turns out that \(M_{z,1/2}^{(n)}\) coincides with the aforementioned measures \(M_{z,\bar{z},\theta}^{(n)}\) for \(\theta = 1/2\).