Discrete components in restriction of unitary representations of rank one semisimple Lie groups (Q892663)

Let \( G \) be a connected rank one Lie group and consider its (spherical) principal series representation \( \pi_{\nu} \) with a complex parameter \( \nu \). More specifically, \( \pi_{\nu} = \mathrm{Ind}_P^G (1_M \otimes e^{\nu} \otimes 1_N) \), where \( P = MAN \) is a minimal parabolic subgroup, where the induction is the normalized one so that \( \mathrm{Im}\nu = 0 \) is the unitary axis. For a real parameter \( \nu \in \mathbb R \), the representation \( \pi_{\nu} \) is generically irreducible, but non-unitary. However, \( \pi_{\nu} \) is unitary (at least) up to the first reduction point (where \( \pi_{\nu} \) is not irreducible) and it is very important to know it for the classification of the unitary dual. Those unitary \( \pi_{\nu} \; (\nu \in \mathbb R) \) are called complementary series. There exists a fairly big amount of studies on them in the 1970's--1980's. Let \( H \) be a noncompact real rank one subgroup of \( G \). So \( G \) and \( H \) are ``close'' in a certain sense. Recently, discrete components of the restriction \( \pi_{\nu}\big|_H \) attracted interest (e.g., [\textit{J. Möllers} et al., J. Geom. Anal. 26, No. 1, 118--142 (2016; Zbl 1336.22013); \textit{B. Speh} and \textit{T. N. Venkataramana}, Forum Math. 23, No. 6, 1159--1187 (2011; Zbl 1282.11054); \textit{G. Zhang}, Adv. Math. 223, No. 5, 1495--1520 (2010; Zbl 1242.22022); \textit{J. Möllers} and \textit{Y. Oshima}, J. Math. Sci., Tokyo 22, No. 1, 279--338 (2015; Zbl 1333.22009)]). It seems that the restriction has continuous spectrum consisting of the unitary principal series of \( H \), but on certain special points (finite in number), it also has discrete components like ``the first reduction point'' as mentioned above. Detailed knowledge of these discrete spectra will be an important step towards the understanding of the relations of the unitary dual between two groups. The paper under review also studies such subjects. To be specific, the author considers spherical principal series representations \( \pi_{\nu} \) of the semisimple Lie group \( G \) of rank one and restriction to its subgroup \( H \) among the following list: \( G = \mathrm{SO}(n,1; K), K = \mathbb R, \mathbb C, \mathbb{H} \) and \( H = \mathrm{SO}(n-1, 1; K) \); the exceptional Lie group \( G = F_4(-20) \) and its subgroup \( H = Spin_0(8, 1) \). The main theorem (Theorem 1.1) states that the restriction of the complementary series \( \pi_{\nu}\big|_H \) contains a discrete component which is a complementary series of \( H \) with the ``same'' parameter. Also, for a unitarizable quotient \( \mathcal{W}_{\nu}^G \) of \( \pi_{\nu} = \pi_{\nu}^G \) with \( \nu \) beyond the first reduction point (so that \( \pi_{\nu} \) is not in the complementary series anymore), the restriction contains a discrete component \( \mathcal{W}_{\nu}^H \) again with the ``same'' parameter. The proof is unique and interesting. The author uses a concrete realization of \( \pi_{\nu} \) in terms of spherical harmonics, and analyzes the norm of the restricted functions very precisely. He gives information on the bounded norm of the restriction map. Note that, in the case of \( G = \mathrm{SO}(n,1;\mathbb R) \), the complete spectrum (continuous and discrete) of the restriction is known by Möllers and Oshima [loc. cit.] by a completely different method.