geometric representation theory
representation, 2-representation, ∞-representation
Grothendieck group, lambda-ring, symmetric function, formal group
principal bundle, torsor, vector bundle, Atiyah Lie algebroid
Eilenberg-Moore category, algebra over an operad, actegory, crossed module
Be?linson-Bernstein localization?
Representation theory is concerned with the study of algebraic structures via their representations. This concerns notably groups, directly or in their incarnation as group algebras, Hopf algebras or Lie algebras, and usually concerns linear representations, hence modules of these structures. But more generally representation theory also studies representations/modules/actions of generalizations of such structures, such as coalgebras via their comodules etc.
See also at geometric representation theory.
The fundamental concepts of representation theory have a particular natural formulation in homotopy theory and in fact in homotopy type theory, which also refines it from the study of representations of groups to that of ∞-representations of ∞-groups. This includes both discrete ∞-groups as well as geometric homotopy types such as smooth ∞-groups, the higher analog of Lie groups.
The key observation to this translation is that
an ∞-group is equivalently given by its delooping regarded with its canonical point (see at looping and delooping), hence the universal -principal ∞-bundle
an ∞-action of on any geometric homotopy type is equivalently given by a homotopy fiber sequence of the form
hence by a -fiber ∞-bundle over which is the -associated ∞-bundle to the universal -principal ∞-bundle (see at ∞-action for more on this).
Under this identification, the representation theory of is equivalently
the homotopy theory in the slice (∞,1)-topos over ;
the homotopy type theory in the context of/dependent on .
More in detail, this yields the following identifications:
representation theory and equivariant cohomology in terms of (∞,1)-topos theory/homotopy type theory (FSS 12 I, exmp. 4.4):
Grothendieck group, lambda-ring, symmetric function, formal group
principal bundle, torsor, vector bundle, Atiyah Lie algebroid
character sheaf?, Harish Chandra transform
Eilenberg-Moore category, algebra over an operad, actegory, crossed module
Lecture notes:
Pavel Etingof, Oleg Golberg, Sebastian Hensel, Tiankai Liu, Alex Schwendner, Dmitry Vaintrob, Elena Yudovina:
Introduction to representation theory, Student Mathematical Library 59, AMS (2011) [arXiv:0901.0827, ams:stml-59]
Tammo tom Dieck, Representation theory (2009) [pdf, pdf]
Constantin Teleman, Representation theory, lecture notes 2005 (pdf)
Joel Robbin, Real, Complex and Quaternionic representations, 2006 (pdf, pdf)
Igor R. Shafarevich, Alexey O. Remizov: §14 in: Linear Algebra and Geometry (2012) [doi:10.1007/978-3-642-30994-6, MAA-review]
Textbook accounts
for finite groups:
Charles Curtis, Irving Reiner, Representation theory of finite groups and associative algebras, AMS 1962
Klaus Lux, Herbert Pahlings, Representations of groups – A computational approach, Cambridge University Press 2010 (author page, publisher page)
Caroline Gruson, Vera Serganova, From Finite Groups to Quivers via Algebras – A Journey Through Representation Theory, Springer (2018) [doi:10.1007/978-3-319-98271-7]
and more generally for compact Lie groups:
Tammo tom Dieck, Theodor Bröcker, Representations of compact Lie groups, Springer (1985) [doi:10.1007/978-3-662-12918-0]
William Fulton, Joe Harris, Representation Theory: a First Course, Springer, Berlin, 1991 (doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-0979-9)
In the context of quantum mechanics:
Discussion via string diagrams/Penrose notation:
Jeffrey Ellis Mandula, Diagrammatic techniques in group theory, Southampton Univ. Phys. Dept. (1981) (cds:129911, pdf)
Predrag Cvitanović, Group Theory: Birdtracks, Lie’s, and Exceptional Groups, Princeton University Press July 2008 (PUP, birdtracks.eu, pdf)
(aimed at Lie theory and gauge theory)
Further references:
The relation to number theory and the Langlands program is discussed in
Last revised on June 10, 2024 at 20:07:45. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.