Representation theoryRepresentation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by representing their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essence, a representation makes an abstract algebraic object more concrete by describing its elements by matrices and their algebraic operations (for example, matrix addition, matrix multiplication).
Character (mathematics)In mathematics, a character is (most commonly) a special kind of function from a group to a field (such as the complex numbers). There are at least two distinct, but overlapping meanings. Other uses of the word "character" are almost always qualified. multiplicative character A multiplicative character (or linear character, or simply character) on a group G is a group homomorphism from G to the multiplicative group of a field , usually the field of complex numbers.
Haar measureIn mathematical analysis, the Haar measure assigns an "invariant volume" to subsets of locally compact topological groups, consequently defining an integral for functions on those groups. This measure was introduced by Alfréd Haar in 1933, though its special case for Lie groups had been introduced by Adolf Hurwitz in 1897 under the name "invariant integral". Haar measures are used in many parts of analysis, number theory, group theory, representation theory, statistics, probability theory, and ergodic theory.
Locally compact groupIn mathematics, a locally compact group is a topological group G for which the underlying topology is locally compact and Hausdorff. Locally compact groups are important because many examples of groups that arise throughout mathematics are locally compact and such groups have a natural measure called the Haar measure. This allows one to define integrals of Borel measurable functions on G so that standard analysis notions such as the Fourier transform and spaces can be generalized.
Von Neumann algebraIn mathematics, a von Neumann algebra or W*-algebra is a -algebra of bounded operators on a Hilbert space that is closed in the weak operator topology and contains the identity operator. It is a special type of C-algebra. Von Neumann algebras were originally introduced by John von Neumann, motivated by his study of single operators, group representations, ergodic theory and quantum mechanics. His double commutant theorem shows that the analytic definition is equivalent to a purely algebraic definition as an algebra of symmetries.
Gelfand representationIn mathematics, the Gelfand representation in functional analysis (named after I. M. Gelfand) is either of two things: a way of representing commutative Banach algebras as algebras of continuous functions; the fact that for commutative C*-algebras, this representation is an isometric isomorphism. In the former case, one may regard the Gelfand representation as a far-reaching generalization of the Fourier transform of an integrable function.
Compact groupIn mathematics, a compact (topological) group is a topological group whose topology realizes it as a compact topological space (when an element of the group is operated on, the result is also within the group). Compact groups are a natural generalization of finite groups with the discrete topology and have properties that carry over in significant fashion. Compact groups have a well-understood theory, in relation to group actions and representation theory. In the following we will assume all groups are Hausdorff spaces.
Hopf algebraIn mathematics, a Hopf algebra, named after Heinz Hopf, is a structure that is simultaneously an (unital associative) algebra and a (counital coassociative) coalgebra, with these structures' compatibility making it a bialgebra, and that moreover is equipped with an antiautomorphism satisfying a certain property. The representation theory of a Hopf algebra is particularly nice, since the existence of compatible comultiplication, counit, and antipode allows for the construction of tensor products of representations, trivial representations, and dual representations.
Unitary representationIn mathematics, a unitary representation of a group G is a linear representation π of G on a complex Hilbert space V such that π(g) is a unitary operator for every g ∈ G. The general theory is well-developed in the case that G is a locally compact (Hausdorff) topological group and the representations are strongly continuous. The theory has been widely applied in quantum mechanics since the 1920s, particularly influenced by Hermann Weyl's 1928 book Gruppentheorie und Quantenmechanik.
Topological groupIn mathematics, topological groups are logically the combination of groups and topological spaces, i.e. they are groups and topological spaces at the same time, such that the continuity condition for the group operations connects these two structures together and consequently they are not independent from each other. Topological groups have been studied extensively in the period of 1925 to 1940. Haar and Weil (respectively in 1933 and 1940) showed that the integrals and Fourier series are special cases of a very wide class of topological groups.
Locally compact spaceIn topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space is called locally compact if, roughly speaking, each small portion of the space looks like a small portion of a compact space. More precisely, it is a topological space in which every point has a compact neighborhood. In mathematical analysis locally compact spaces that are Hausdorff are of particular interest; they are abbreviated as LCH spaces. Let X be a topological space. Most commonly X is called locally compact if every point x of X has a compact neighbourhood, i.
Circle groupIn mathematics, the circle group, denoted by or , is the multiplicative group of all complex numbers with absolute value 1, that is, the unit circle in the complex plane or simply the unit complex numbers The circle group forms a subgroup of , the multiplicative group of all nonzero complex numbers. Since is abelian, it follows that is as well. A unit complex number in the circle group represents a rotation of the complex plane about the origin and can be parametrized by the angle measure : This is the exponential map for the circle group.
P-adic analysisIn mathematics, p-adic analysis is a branch of number theory that deals with the mathematical analysis of functions of p-adic numbers. The theory of complex-valued numerical functions on the p-adic numbers is part of the theory of locally compact groups. The usual meaning taken for p-adic analysis is the theory of p-adic-valued functions on spaces of interest. Applications of p-adic analysis have mainly been in number theory, where it has a significant role in diophantine geometry and diophantine approximation.
Fourier transformIn physics and mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is a transform that converts a function into a form that describes the frequencies present in the original function. The output of the transform is a complex-valued function of frequency. The term Fourier transform refers to both this complex-valued function and the mathematical operation. When a distinction needs to be made the Fourier transform is sometimes called the frequency domain representation of the original function.
Group ringIn algebra, a group ring is a free module and at the same time a ring, constructed in a natural way from any given ring and any given group. As a free module, its ring of scalars is the given ring, and its basis is the set of elements of the given group. As a ring, its addition law is that of the free module and its multiplication extends "by linearity" the given group law on the basis. Less formally, a group ring is a generalization of a given group, by attaching to each element of the group a "weighting factor" from a given ring.
Banach algebraIn mathematics, especially functional analysis, a Banach algebra, named after Stefan Banach, is an associative algebra over the real or complex numbers (or over a non-Archimedean complete normed field) that at the same time is also a Banach space, that is, a normed space that is complete in the metric induced by the norm. The norm is required to satisfy This ensures that the multiplication operation is continuous. A Banach algebra is called unital if it has an identity element for the multiplication whose norm is and commutative if its multiplication is commutative.
Harmonic analysisHarmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on the real line, or by Fourier series for periodic functions. Generalizing these transforms to other domains is generally called Fourier analysis, although the term is sometimes used interchangeably with harmonic analysis.
Profinite groupIn mathematics, a profinite group is a topological group that is in a certain sense assembled from a system of finite groups. The idea of using a profinite group is to provide a "uniform", or "synoptic", view of an entire system of finite groups. Properties of the profinite group are generally speaking uniform properties of the system. For example, the profinite group is finitely generated (as a topological group) if and only if there exists such that every group in the system can be generated by elements.
