Group Representations, Ergodic Theory, and Mathematical Physics (PDF)

George Mackey was an extraordinary mathematician of great power and vision. His profound contributions to representation theory, harmonic analysis, ergodic theory, and mathematical physics left a rich legacy for researchers that continues today. This book is based on lectures presented at an AMS special session held in January 2007 in New Orleans dedicated to his memory. The papers, written especially for this volume by internationally-known mathematicians and mathematical physicists, range from expository and historical surveys to original high-level research articles. The influence of Mackey's fundamental ideas is apparent throughout. The introductory article contains recollections from former students, friends, colleagues, and family as well as a biography describing his distinguished career as a mathematician at Harvard, where he held the Landon D. Clay Professorship of Mathematics. Topics examined here include recent results on induced representations, virtual groups, the Mackey Machine and crossed products, representations of Baumslag-Solitar groups, the Radon transform and the heat equation, groupoids in the study of wavelets, and quantum theory. The in-depth historical surveys of Mackey's work on representation theory, ergodic theory, and physics, together with recent developments inspired by his fundamental work will be of considerable interest to both graduate students and researchers alike.