Paper 4, Section II, I

Representation Theory
Part II, 2021

(a) Define the group S1S^{1}. Sketch a proof of the classification of the irreducible continuous representations of S1S^{1}. Show directly that the characters obey an orthogonality relation.

(b) Define the group SU(2)S U(2).

(i) Show that there is a bijection between the conjugacy classes in G=SU(2)G=S U(2) and the subset [1,1][-1,1] of the real line. [If you use facts about a maximal torus TT, you should prove them.]

(ii) Write Ox\mathcal{O}_{x} for the conjugacy class indexed by an element xx, where 1<x<1-1<x<1. Show that Ox\mathcal{O}_{x} is homeomorphic to S2S^{2}. [Hint: First show that Ox\mathcal{O}_{x} is in bijection with G/TG / T.

(iii) Let t:G[1,1]t: G \rightarrow[-1,1] be the parametrisation of conjugacy classes from part (i). Determine the representation of GG whose character is the function g8t(g)3g \mapsto 8 t(g)^{3}.