Trace class elements and cross-sections in Kac-Moody groups

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-1998-049-3
Canad. J. Math. 50(1998), 972-1006

  Published:1998-10-01
 Printed: Oct 1998

Let $G$ be an affine Kac-Moody group, $\pi_0,\dots,\pi_r,\pi_{\delta}$ its fundamental irreducible representations and $\chi_0, \dots, \chi_r, \chi_{\delta}$ their characters. We determine the set of all group elements $x$ such that all $\pi_i(x)$ act as trace class operators, \ie, such that $\chi_i(x)$ exists, then prove that the $\chi_i$ are class functions. Thus, $\chi:=(\chi_0, \dots, \chi_r, \chi_{\delta})$ factors to an adjoint quotient $\bar{\chi}$ for $G$. In a second part, following Steinberg, we define a cross-section $C$ for the potential regular classes in $G$. We prove that the restriction $\chi|_C$ behaves well algebraically. Moreover, we obtain an action of $\hbox{\Bbbvii C}^{\times}$ on $C$, which leads to a functional identity for $\chi|_C$ which shows that $\chi|_C$ is quasi-homogeneous.