Eng Chye Tan - Böcker

This book mainly discusses the representation theory of the special linear group 8L(2, 1R), and some applications of this theory. In fact the emphasis is on the applications; the working title of the book while it was being writ­ ten was "Some Things You Can Do with 8L(2). " Some of the applications are outside representation theory, and some are to representation theory it­ self. The topics outside representation theory are mostly ones of substantial classical importance (Fourier analysis, Laplace equation, Huyghens' prin­ ciple, Ergodic theory), while the ones inside representation theory mostly concern themes that have been central to Harish-Chandra's development of harmonic analysis on semisimple groups (his restriction theorem, regularity theorem, character formulas, and asymptotic decay of matrix coefficients and temperedness). We hope this mix of topics appeals to nonspecialists in representation theory by illustrating (without an interminable prolegom­ ena) how representation theory can offer new perspectives on familiar topics and by offering some insight into some important themes in representation theory itself. Especially, we hope this book popularizes Harish-Chandra's restriction formula, which, besides being basic to his work, is simply a beautiful example of Fourier analysis on Euclidean space. We also hope representation theorists will enjoy seeing examples of how their subject can be used and will be stimulated by some of the viewpoints offered on representation-theoretic issues.

The International Conference on Fundamental Sciences: Mathematics and Theoretical Physics provided a forum for reviewing some of the significant developments in mathematics and theoretical physics in the 20th century; for the leading theorists in these fields to expound and discuss their views on new ideas and trends in the basic sciences as the new millennium approached; for increasing public awareness of the importance of basic research in mathematics and theoretical physics; and for promoting a high level of interest in mathematics and theoretical physics among school students and teachers. This was a major conference, with invited lectures by some of the leading experts in various fields of mathematics and theoretical physics.

The Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the National University of Singapore hosted a research program on “Representation Theory of Lie Groups” from July 2002 to January 2003. As part of the program, tutorials for graduate students and junior researchers were given by leading experts in the field.This invaluable volume collects the expanded lecture notes of those tutorials. The topics covered include uncertainty principles for locally compact abelian groups, fundamentals of representations of p-adic groups, the Harish-Chandra-Howe local character expansion, classification of the square-integrable representations modulo cuspidal data, Dirac cohomology and Vogan's conjecture, multiplicity-free actions and Schur-Weyl-Howe duality.The lecturers include Tomasz Przebinda from the University of Oklahoma, USA; Gordan Savin from the University of Utah, USA; Stephen DeBacker from Harvard University, USA; Marko Tadić from the University of Zagreb, Croatia; Jing-Song Huang from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong; Pavle Pandǽić from the University of Zagreb, Croatia; Chal Benson and Gail Ratcliff from East Carolina University, USA; and Roe Goodman from Rutgers University, USA.