A compact group G has a unique normalized both left and right invariant Haar

measure; and if G acts continuously on a nite dimensional vector space V, V also

has an inner product which is invariant under the action of G. Because, starting
from an arbitrary inner product, say P(, ), we dene
v, u :=

G
P(gu, gv)dg,
(integrating with respect to the Haar measure) which is automatically invariant.
1 Matrix coecient
Let G

GL(V) be a representation, where V is n-dimensional. Now, choose
a vector v V and any linear functional L : V C [note that it is given by
L(x) =< x, w >, once you x an inner product, for some w V.] Now, observe
that we have two cases: if v, w are linearly dependent, i.e. say w = v: v can be
extended to a basis, with respect to that basis, has a matrix form, and L((g)v) =

11
(g) < v, v >. Again, if v and w are not dependent, then v, w can be a part of a
basis, with respect to which if we consider the matrix from of , then
L((g)v) =<
11
(g)v +
12
(g)w + , w >=
12
(g) < w, w > .
So, functions of the form L((g)v) are scalar multiples of coecients of the matrix
form of with respect to particular bases.
Such functions will be called matrix coecients. If for a continuous function
f on G, {(g) f : g G} spans a nite dimensional vector space V over C, then
f is a matrix coecient, for (, V) is a nite dimensional representation of G and
f (g) = L((g) f ), where L : V C : (1) is a linear functional. Thus, it
is immediate that the sum of matrix coecients is also a matrix coecient. And
also, for a matrix coecient g L((g)v), all its right translates are in the linear
span of the coecient of the matrix form of , which is nite dimensional. So,
one can invariantly dene a matrix coecients to be a continuous function whose
right translates form a nite dimensional subspace of C(G).
2 Peter-Weyl Theorem
T 1 (Peter-Weyl) Given a compact group G, a continuous function f on
it, and any positive real number , there is an element in the representative ring,
i.e., in the C-algebra generated by matrix coecients, such that || f ||

< .
1
Proof. Let G be a compact group. Let f : G C be continuous.
1. Since f is conts, and G is compact, for given there is an open nbd. U of
identity such that (x)(y)(x
1
y U | f (x) f (y)| < /2).
2. There is continuous : G C supported on U such that

G
(g)dg = 1 and
(g
1
) = (g).
3. Have compact self adjoint operator T : L
2
(G) L
2
(G) : i.e.
T(x) =

G
(g)(g
1
x)dg. This means that T commutes with projections (g),
where (g)(x) = (g
1
x).
Note:
< T, >=

G
(g
1
h)(g)dg(h)dh;
and
< , T >=

G
(g)

G
(h
1
g)(h)dh

dg.
But the two right side terms are equal by the assumptions on . So, T is self-
adjoint.
4. It means that in the spectral decomposition
L
2
(G) = ker T (

),
(here bar means the closure of the direct sum) where each 0, and each E

being eigenspaces, are nite dimensional; and also, as T commutes with (g),
these E

are G-modules.
5. So, TL
2
(G) =

TE

=

E

.
6. As is evident, ||T f f ||

/2, and T f

E

. The inequality is by this:

T f (x) f (x) =

G
{ f (g)(g
1
x) f (x)}dg
=

G
{ f (g)(x
1
g) f (x)}dg
=

G
{ f (xg)(g) f (x)(g)}dg,
whence
|T f (x) f (x)| sup
gU
| f (xg) f (x)| /2.
7. Each E

is inside the representative ring: let

1
, ,
n
be an orthogonal basis
of it; since it is G-stable, one has, for any E

,
i
(g
1
x) =

j
c
i j
(g)
j
(x),
whence, in matrix notation,
(g
1
x) = (c
i j
(g))(x),
which means that as (x) = (c
i j
(g
1
))(c
i j
(g))(x), the matrix (c
i j
(g)) is always
invertible. So,
i
(g) =

j
c
i j
(g
1
)
j
(e), which means that the elements of the
orthonormal basis are linear combinations of the coecients of a representation.
2
More so, by the remerk in the previous section, as E

is G-stable nite dimen-

sional, functions in it are matrix coecients. So, T f is approximated in L
2
norm
by elements of the representative ring.
Precisely, there is a coecient
1
of a linear representation such that for a
scalar multiple of that, we have ||T f ||
2
< /2.
8. So, one has such an element in the representative ring that || f ||
2
< ,
since the L
2
-norm is less than or equal to the sup norm. However, for any there
is such a ; so, we can choose such a that || f ||
2
<

2C
, where C = ||||
2
. Write
= ( f ).
So,
| (x)|
2
= |

G
(g
1
x)(g)dg|
2
= |

G
(g)(x
1
g)dg|
2
= |

G
(xg)(g)dg|
2
= | < L
x
, > |
2
|| L
x
||
2
2
||||
2
2
=

G
|(xg)|
2
dg C
2
= C
2

G
|(g)|
2
dg = C
2
||||
2
2
.
So, ||T f T||

C || f ||
2
< /2. Again, as was chosen to be linear
combination of elements of E

s, it follows that T is also in the representative

ring. Lastly, one sees that
|| f T||

|| f T f ||

+ ||T f T||

< /2 + /2 = .

3 Applications
T 2 Every compact Lie group has a faithful representation.
Proof. Let U be an open neighbourhood of the identity which doesnt contain any
non trivial Lie subgroup. There is by normality of the group a continuous function
which is two outside U and 0 at the identity. Now, by Peter-Weyl theorem there
is a representative function which vanishes at the identity and is greater than 1
outside U. Let that be given by g L((g)v). So, the kernel of is contained
in U; but the kernel is a closed subgroup i.e. a Lie subgroup, contradicting the
choice of U, unless it is trivial.
3
3.1 characters
The character of a representation (V, ), which we will denote by
V
, is sim-
ply the trace of . It is easy to check that for irreducible representations V, W,
Hom
G
(V, W) = 0 if W and V are inequivalent and C if they are equivalent. This
is called Schurs lemma. Now, take the inequivalent case, dimV = n, dimW = m,
and take any n m matrix (T
kl
). Then dene the map A : V W by
A
i j
=

G
(

kl

ik
(g)T
kl

l j
(g)

dg.
This is G-invariant, so by Schurs lemma, is zero. Choose T
kl
to be 1 at st-th place
and zero elsewhere, so that

G

is
(g)
tl
(g)dg = 0.
If V is a representation then the operator p given by v

G
gvdg is a projection
operator onto the xed points V
G
, so that its trace is dimV
G
. G acts on Hom(V, W)
by (g f )(v) = g( f (g
1
v)), so that the homomorphisms that are xed are precisely
the G-morphism i.e. Hom(V, W)
G
= Hom
G
(V, W). Thus,
dimV
G
= Tr(p) = Tr(

G
(g)dg) =

G
Tr((g))dg =

V
(g)dg.
Thus,
dimHom(V, W)
G
=

Hom(V,W)
(g)dg =

W
(g)dg =

W

V
dg.
Keeping in mind the above discussion, two irreducible representations V and W
are equivalent or not according as

G

W

V
dg is 1 or 0.
Let us now apply this to representation of compact groups. Representations
of compact groups have invariant inner product i.e can thus be broken up into
direct sum of irreducible representations: any nite dimensional representation V
is represented as
k
i=1
n
i
V
i
where V
i
are the inequivalent irreducible components of
V and n
i
are the multiplicities. Thus,
V
=

k
i=1
n
i

V
i
, whence
V
,
V
=

i
n
2
i
.
This also means that a representation is irreducible if and only if
V
,
V
= 1. It
follows, thus, that if V is irreducible, then so is V

. And V

V as G G module
is irreducible, since

GG

V
=

GG

V
=

2
= 1.
Let me denote by R(G) the ring of representative functions, called the rep-
resentation ring. Now, given a representation V of G, one has the function s
V
:
V

V C(G), where the tensor is taken over complex numbers and C(G) de-
notes the complex valued continuous functions on G: The function s
V
is dened
by s
V
( v) = d
,v
where
d
,v
: G C : g (gv).
4
Henceforth we will denote by S (V) the image of s
V
in C(G). If (V, ) and (W, )
are inequivalent irreducible representation, then for V

, W

, and v
V, u W and with respect to xed orthonormal bases with respect to G-invariant
inner products, (g)v = (

i j
(g)v
j
)
i
and (gv) =

i j
a
i

i j
(g)v
j
; and similarly,
(gu) =

kl
b
k

kl
(g)u
l
. So, the L
2
inner product of s
V
( v) and s
W
( u) is

(gv)(gu)dg =

i jkl
a
i
b
k
v
j
u
l

i j
(g)
kl
(g)dg = 0.
Now, the image of s
V
is spanned by d
e

i
,e
j
= s
V
(e

i
e
j
). But
d
e

i
,e
j
(g) = e

i
((g)e
j
) =
i j
.
Hence the image is the span of
i j
. Now, this map is G G-module map, and
for V irreducible, since V

V is an irreducible G G-module, this map is an

isomorphism. Hence, we get a map
s :

V

G
(V

V) R(G).
This map is obviously one-one, since the image of one of the summands is or-
thogonal to that of another. We will show that this map is onto. To show that, it
is enough to show that any representative function is in the direct sum of nitely
many S (V). But, for a representative function f , f (g) = g. f (1), and if f gen-
erates the nite dimensional subspace V, then let e
i
denote an orthonormal basis
of V with respect to invariant inner product, and e

i
the dual basis, if we write
g. f (x) =

i
a
i
(g)e
i
(x), then s
V
(e

j
f )(g) = a
j
(g) and thus,
f (g) =

i
s
V
(e
i
f )(g)e
i
(1),
meaning that f is in S (V), which proves the above contention. So, we have the
isomorphism
s :

V

G
(V

V) R(G).
This also means that as a G-module, R(G) is semisimple, and an isotypical com-
ponent is the direct sum of an irreducible representation its dimension times. By
Peter-Weyl theorem, the Hilbert space L
2
(G) is the closure of R(G) i.e.,
L
2
(G) =

V

G
(V V),
the sum inside bracket being taken dimension of V times.
At this stage we need to make a lemma for future reference:
L. 1 If B is a G-submodule of R(G) then B is closed in both sup and inner
product topology.
5
Proof. We have already proved that R(G) is semisimple, which shows that B is
the direct sum of B S (V) for irreducible V. Now, let f be in the closure (inner
product topology) of B in R(G). Then if
V
denotes the projection onto S (V), then
for any b B, note that

V
( f b),
V
( f b) f b, f b.
This means that
V
( f ) is in the closure of
V
(B) = B S (V); but the latter being
nite dimensional is closed, whence
V
( f ) B. Now, only nitely many
V
( f )
are non zero; so, f B. Now, if something is closed in the inner product topology,
it is automatically closed in the sup norm topology.
By Theorem2 any compact Lie group G has a faithful representation, say ,
and with respect to a basis if the coecients of are denoted by
i j
then the alge-
bra over C generated by {
i j
,
i j
}
i j
is a unital C

algebra separating points, and by

Stone Weierstrass theorem is dense in C(G). And as this algebra is G-submodule
of R(G), we conclude by Lemma1 that the representative ring is generated as an
algebra over the complex numbers by {
i j
,
i j
}
i j
. Thus,
T 3 The representative ring of a compact Lie group (or a compact group
admitting a faithful representation) is nitely generated over the eld of complex
numbers.
6