Spanning \(L^{2}\) of a nilpotent Lie group by eigenvectors of invariant differential operators (Q957900)

Let \(G\) denote a nonabelian connected simply connected nilpotent Lie group. It is known that the left regular representation disintegrates into irreducible ones with infinite multiplicities. The authors determine a finite number of families of left invariant differential operators with nontrivial kernels in the Schwartz algebra \(\mathcal S (G)\) and in \(L^ 2(G)\). The construction of these operators is done on the Lie algebra level, by making use of the irreducible unitary representations given by the Kirillov orbit method. The authors show that these kernels together with the kernels of their conjugates span a dense subspace of \(L^2(G)\). Thus \(L^ 2(G)\) can be written as a closure of a sum of left invariant subspaces. The subspaces of this sum coincide with the set of weak solutions of a system of left invariant partial differential equations.