Branching problems in reproducing kernel spaces (Q2657465)

Restricting a unitary irreducible representation \(\pi\) of a Lie group \(G\) to a closed subgroup \(H\) leads to the branching law problem, namely, finding the explicit decomposition of \(\pi\) into irreducible representations of \(H\). In the paper under review the authors study the case of \(G\), a semisimple Lie group, with \(\pi\) a representation in the discrete series, that is \(\pi\) occurs as a left-invariant closed irreducible subspace of \(L^2(G)\); these form the celebrated discrete series of Harish-Chandra. \(H\) will be a subgroup of the same type, and assume that both \(G\) and \(H\) admit discrete series. The authors study some of the branching laws by combining classical results with recent work of Kobayashi; in particular, they prove discrete decomposability under Harish-Chandra's condition of cusp form on the reproducing kernel. They show a relation between discrete decomposability and representing certain intertwining operators in terms of differential operators.