Tempered Representation - Formulation

Formulation

This condition, as just given, is slightly weaker than the condition that the matrix coefficients are square-integrable, in other words lie in

L2(G),

which would be the definition of a discrete series representation. If G is a linear semisimple Lie group with a maximal compact subgroup K, an admissible representation ρ of G is tempered if the above condition holds for the K-finite matrix coefficients of ρ.

The definition above is also used for more general groups, such as p-adic Lie groups and finite central extensions of semisimple real algebraic groups. The definition of "tempered representation" makes sense for arbitrary unimodular locally compact groups, but on groups with infinite centers such as infinite central extensions of semisimple Lie groups it does not behave well and is usually replaced by a slightly different definition.

Tempered representations on semisimple Lie groups were first defined and studied by Harish-Chandra (using a different but equivalent definition), who showed that they are exactly the representations needed for the Plancherel theorem. They were classified by Knapp and Zuckerman, and used by Langlands in the Langlands classification of irreducible representations of a reductive Lie group G in terms of the tempered representations of smaller groups.