Quasiconformal realizations of \(E_{6(6)}, E_{7(7)}, E_{8(8)}\) and \(\mathrm{SO}(n+3,m+3)\), \(N\geq 4\) supergravity and spherical vectors (Q601704)

From the authors' abstract: After reviewing the underlying algebraic structures, the authors give a unified realization of split exceptional groups \(F_{4(4)}\), \(E_{6(6)}\), \(E_{7(7)}\), \(E_{8(8)}\) and of\break \(\text{SO}(n+3,m+3)\) as quasiconformal groups that is covariant with respect to their (Lorentz) subgroups \(\text{SL}(3,\mathbb R)\), \(\text{SL}(3,\mathbb R) \times \text{SL}(3,\mathbb R)\), \(\text{SL}(6,\mathbb R)\), \(E_{6(6)}\) and \(\text{SO}(n,m)\times \text{SO}(1,1)\), respectively. They determine the spherical vectors of quasiconformal realizations of all these groups twisted by a unitary character \(\nu\). There are given their quadratic Casimir operators and there are determined their values in terms of \(\nu\) and the dimension \(n_V\) of the underlying Jordan algebras. For \(\nu= -(n_V+2)+i\rho\) the quasiconformal action induces unitary representations on the space of square integrable functions in \((2n_V+3)\) variables, that belong to the principal series. For special discrete values of \(\nu\) the quasiconformal action leads to unitary representations belonging to the discrete series and their continuations. The manifolds that correspond to ``quasiconformal compactifications'' of the respective \((2n_V+3)\) dimensional spaces are also given. The relevance of the obtained results to \(N=8\) supergravity and to \(N=4\) Maxwell-Einstein supergravity theories is discussed.