Groups with irreducibly unfaithful subsets for unitary representations

DOI10.5802/CML.61zbMATH Open1475.22012arXiv1807.04992OpenAlexW3088247345MaRDI QIDQ2223484FDOQ2223484

Authors: Pierre-Emmanuel Caprace, Pierre de la Harpe 

Publication date: 29 January 2021

Published in: Confluentes Mathematici (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Let $G$ be a group. A subset $FsubsetG$ is called irreducibly faithful if there exists an irreducible unitary representation $pi$ of $G$ such that $pi(x)eqmathrmid$ for all $xinFsmallsetminuse$. Otherwise $F$ is called irreducibly unfaithful. Given a positive integer $n$, we say that $G$ has Property $P(n)$ if every subset of size $n$ is irreducibly faithful. Every group has $P(1)$, by a classical result of Gelfand and Raikov. Walter proved that every group has $P(2)$. It is easy to see that some groups do not have $P(3)$. We provide a complete description of the irreducibly unfaithful subsets of size $n$ in a countable group $G$ (finite or infinite) with Property $P(n-1)$: it turns out that such a subset is contained in a finite elementary abelian normal subgroup of $G$ of a particular kind. We deduce a characterization of Property $P(n)$ purely in terms of the group structure. It follows that, if a countable group $G$ has $P(n-1)$ and does not have $P(n)$, then $n$ is the cardinality of a projective space over a finite field. A group $G$ has Property $Q(n)$ if, for every subset $FsubsetG$ of size at most $n$, there exists an irreducible unitary representation $pi$ of $G$ such that $pi(x)epi(y)$ for any distinct $x,y$ in $F$. Every group has $Q(2)$. For countable groups, it is shown that Property $Q(3)$ is equivalent to $P(3)$, Property $Q(4)$ to $P(6)$, and Property $Q(5)$ to $P(9)$. For $m,nge4$, the relation between Properties $P(m)$ and $Q(n)$ is closely related to a well-documented open problem in additive combinatorics.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.04992

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zbMATH Keywords

irreducible representationunitary representationcountable groupfaithful representationfactor representationfinite elementary abelian normal subgroup

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Unitary representations of locally compact groups (22D10) Representations of groups, semigroups, etc. (aspects of abstract harmonic analysis) (43A65)

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Cited In (2)

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• Groups with faithful irreducible projective unitary representations.

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