Supplement to the Peter-Weyl Theorem

Max Hallgren
November 2, 2015

Let G be a compact group, and let be the bi-invariant Haar measure on G.

We first want to extend the notion of a representation of G to any Hilbert space V (possibly
infinite-dimensional). Let V be a complex Hilbert space. Then GLcont (V ) is the set of continuous C-linear isomorphisms V V . By the Banach isomorphism theorem, this implies that
each member of GLcont has is in fact a homeomorphism, so GLcont (V ) is a group with composition. A representation of G on V is then a continuous group homomorphism : G GLcont (V ).
Lemma 1. Let V be a Banach space, and let : G GLcont (V ) be a group homomorphism.
is continuous (and thus a representation of G on V ) if and only if the following both hold:
i. The map G V, g 7 (g)v is continuous at 1 for any fixed v V ,
ii. The map G R+ , g 7 ||(g)|| is bounded in a neighborhood of 1 G.
Proof.
In particular, we may conclude that any map : G U (V ) with g 7 (g)v continuous for any
fixed v V is a (unitary) representation.
Define
L : G EndC (L2 (G)) by (L(g)f )(x) := f (g 1 x)
for f L2 (G) and x, g G. By the invariance of the Haar measure and the continuity of the
map g 7 L(g)f for each f L2 (G) (Lemma 4.17 in Knapp), we know that L is a unitary
representation of G on L2 (G). Similarly, the map
R : G U (L2 (G)) with (R(g)f ))(x) := f (xg)
for f L2 (G) and x, g G is a unitary representation. L, R are called the left, right regular
representations of G on L2 (G).
Suppose we are given a unitary representation of a compact group G on the finite-dimensional
complex inner product space (V, h, i). We may define an inner product on End(V ) by setting
hT, Si := tr(T S)
for T, S End(V ), where T End(V ) is the Hilbert space adjoint of T given by
hT v, wi = hv, T wi for v, w V.
Also define a representation of G G on End(V ) by
(g, h)T := (g) T (h1 )
for g, h G and T End(V ).

Lemma 2. is a unitary representation of G G on End(V ).

Proof. Let T, S End(V ) and g, h G. Because is a unitary representation, we have
(g) = 1 and (h1 ) = (h), so


h (g, h)T,
(g, h)Si = tr ((h1 ) T (g) ) ((g) S (h1 ))


= tr (h) T S (h)1 = tr(T S) = hT, Si.

Let ( , V ) be a unitary irreducible representation of G. Define

Z
2
f (g)(g)dg.
: L (G) End(V ),
f 7
G

Also define
: End(V ) L2 (G) by ( T )(g) := tr( T ).

Suppose ( , V ) is a finite-dimensional unitary representation for in some indexed set .

b V be the Hilbert sum of the V . Because the set {|| ||2 ; } is bounded
Let V :=
(by 1), elementary Hilbert space theory tells us that, for each g G, there is a unique map
(g) : V V such that | V = for each . By Plancherels theorem, we have
||(g)||2 = 1 for each g G, so is a unitary representation of G on V , and each projection
map V V is a continuous G-equivariant map.
Theorem 1. Peter-Weyl Theorem (first version) Let be a mutually inequivalent set containing every finite-dimensional irreducible unitary representation of G. Then the map
Z

M
d
: L2 (G)
End(V ), f 7
f (g)(g)dg
(1)

is a G-equivariant isometric isomorphism, where G acts on L2 (G) by the left regular representation and G acts on each
Proof. Choose a representative (V , ) for each , and let {v1 , ..., vn() } be an orthonormal

(x) := h (x)v , v i for each

basis for V . Let {v1 , ..., v(n)
} be the dual basis for V , and set i,j
p i j
x G and 1 i, j n(). We know that , 7 is a bijection, so ( dim()kl )k,l is
an orthonormal basis for End(V ). For any f L2 (G), we compute
Z
h(f )vi , vj i =
f (x)i,j (x)dx = hf,
i,j i.
G
=
Letting f = ij
ij for some , we obtain (by the Schur orthogonality relations), we see
that (ij ) = 0 for all i, j when  , and

dim(V ), i = k and j = l
h (ij )vk , vl i =
.
0
otherwise
, where E End(V ) takes v to v and all
We may conclude that (ij ) = (dim V )1 Eij
ij

i
j
other basis elements to 0.

Suppose (, V ) is a unitary representation of G on V . For each g G we may define (g)

End(V ) by
( (g))(x) := ((g 1 )x) = ((g)1 x) for all V , x G.
Moreover, by the Riesz representation theorem, we have a C-linear isomorphism : V
V , v 7 h, vi, so we may define an inner product on V by
h, i := h1 , 1 i for , V .
( , V ) is a unitary representation of G with respect to this inner product.
Moreover, for any unitary representations (, V ), (, W ) of G, we obtain a unitary representation ( , V W ) given on simple tensors by ( )(g)v w := (g)v (g)w, where
V W is a Hilbert space with inner product extended sesquilinearly from
hv w, v 0 w0 i := hv, v 0 i hw, w0 i,

v, v 0 V, w, w0 W.

Lemma 3. For any irreducible representation (, V ) of G, there is a canonical G-intertwining

isometric isomorphism
: V V End(V ) which gives
= .
Proof.
Theorem 2. Let be a mutually inequivalent set containing every finite-dimensional irreducible unitary representation of G. Then the map
: L2 (G)

M
d

(2)

is a G-equivariant isometric isomorphism, where G acts on L2 (G) by the left regular representation and G acts on each V V by the above description.
Proof. This follows by extending the isomorphisms from the previous lemma to all of V .