Wave front sets of reductive Lie group representations (Q283526)

Let \(G\) be a Lie group with a closed subgroup \(H\). Let \(\tau\) be a unitary representation of \(H\). Then one has the induced unitary representation \(\mathrm{Ind }^G_H(\tau)\). On the other hand, let \(q:i\mathfrak g^\ast\to i\mathfrak h^\ast\) be the pullback of the inclusion. For any subset \(S\subset i\mathfrak h^\ast\), the authors define \(\mathrm{Ind }^G_HS\), the set induced by \(S\) from \(i\mathfrak h^\ast\) to \(i\mathfrak g^\ast\), to be \(\overline{\mathrm{Ad}^\ast (G)\cdot q^{-1}(S)}\). The first theorem of the paper is that the wave front set of the induced representation \(\mathrm{Ind }^G_H(\tau)\) contains the set induced by the wave front set of \(\tau\) from \(i\mathfrak h^\ast\) to \(i\mathfrak g^\ast\), and that the singular spectrum of \(\mathrm{Ind }^G_H(\tau)\) contains the set induced by the singular spectrum of \(\tau\) from \(i\mathfrak h^\ast\) to \(i\mathfrak g^\ast\). When \(\tau\) specializes to be the trivial representation, this result was conjectured by \textit{R. Howe} [in: Automorphic forms, representation theory and arithmetic, Pap. Colloq., Bombay 1979, 117--140 (1981; Zbl 0494.22010)]. Now let \(G\) be a real reductive algebraic group. Assume that \(\pi\) is weakly contained in the regular representation of \(G\). The second theorem of the paper is that the singular spectrum of \(\pi\) equals the wave front set of \(\pi\), and equals the asymptotic cone of the orbital support of \(\pi\). Special cases of this theorem were obtained earlier by \textit{M. Kashiwara} and \textit{M. Vernge} [Lect. Notes Math. 728, 177--200 (1979; Zbl 0411.22015)], Howe [loc. cit.], and \textit{W. Rossmann} [Invent. Math. 121, No. 3, 579--611 (1995; Zbl 0851.22013)]. The authors then give applications of their results in harmonic analysis and branching problems. The main results of this paper hold in a more general setting: reductive Lie groups in the Harish-Chandra class.