On some classes of multiplicity free representations (Q679472)

An involutive semigroup is a semigroup \(S\) endowed with an involutive antiautomorphism \(s\to s^*\). A representation \((\pi, {\mathcal H})\) of such a semigroup consists of a Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}\) and a homomorphism into the algebra \(B({\mathcal H})\) of bounded operators on \({\mathcal H}\). A representation \((\pi, {\mathcal H})\) is called multiplicity free if the commutant \(\pi(S)' :=\{A\in B({\mathcal H}): (\forall s\in S)\) \(A\pi(s)=\pi(s)A\}\) is commutative. The author develops quite abstract methods to deal with the multiplicity freeness problem for representations and discusses several classes of examples where these methods apply.