Definitions
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The statement of the theorem
A representation of a groupG on a vector spaceV over a fieldK is a group homomorphism from G to GL(V), the general linear group on V. That is, a representation is a map
such that
Here V is called the representation space and the dimension of V is called the dimension or degree of the representation. It is common practice to refer to V itself as the representation when the homomorphism is clear from the context.
In the case where V is of finite dimension n it is common to choose a basis for V and identify GL(V) with GL(n, K), the group of invertible matrices on the field K.
- If G is a topological group and V is a topological vector space, a continuous representation of G on V is a representation ρ such that the application Φ : G × V → V defined by Φ(g, v) = ρ(g)(v) is continuous.
- The kernel of a representation ρ of a group G is defined as the normal subgroup of G whose image under ρ is the identity transformation:
A faithful representation is one in which the homomorphism G → GL(V) is injective; in other words, one whose kernel is the trivial subgroup {e} consisting only of the group's identity element.
- Given two K vector spaces V and W, a map of two representations ρ : G → GL(V) and π : G → GL(W) (also called an equivariant map) is a linear map α : V → W such that
If α has an inverse equivariant map, the map is called an isomorphism of representations and the representations are said to be equivalent or isomorphic. It is also sufficient that α is an equivariant map which is an isomorphism of vector spaces.