Let G be a connected, linear, real reductive Lie group with compact centre. Let K < G be compact. Under a condition on K, which holds in particular if K is maximal compact, we give a geometric expression for the multiplicities of the K-types of any tempered representation (in fact, any standard representation) π of G. This expression is in the spirit of Kirillov's orbit method and the quantisation commutes with reduction principle. It is based on the geometric realisation of π| K obtained in an earlier paper. This expression was obtained for the discrete series by Paradan, and for tempered representations with regular parameters by Duflo and Vergne. We obtain consequences for the support of the multiplicity function, and a criterion for multiplicity-free restrictions that applies to general admissible representations. As examples, we show that admissible representations of SU(p, 1), SO 0 (p, 1) and SO 0 (2, 2) restrict multiplicity-freely to maximal compact subgroups.
Contents3 Ingredients of the proof Hecht-Schmid [11] and later also in [6]) is an explicit combinatorial expression for the multiplicities of the K-types of π. For general tempered representations, there exist algorithms to compute these multiplicities. See for example the ATLAS software package 1 and its documentation [1]. This involves representations of disconnected subgroups of G, which cannot be classified via Lie algebra methods. That is one of the reasons why it is a challenge to deduce general properties of multiplicities of K-types of tempered representations from such algorithms. Another reason is the cancellation of terms, that already occurs in Blattner's formula. That can make it hard, for example, to determine which multiplicities are zero.Paradan [35] gave a geometric expression for the multiplicities of the K-types of discrete series representations π. This was based on a version of the quantisation commutes with reduction principle for a certain class of noncompact Spin c -manifolds, and a geometric realisation of π| K based in turn on Blattner's formula and index theory of transversally elliptic operators. The main result in this paper, Theorem 2.7, is a generalisation of Paradan's result to arbitrary tempered representations. (In fact, it applies more generally to standard representations.) This generalisation is now possible, because of a quantisation commutes with reduction result for general noncompact Spin c -manifolds proved recently by the first two authors of this paper [14]. Theorem 2.7 can in fact be generalised to more general compact subgroups K < G; see Corollary 2.8. For tempered representations with regular parameters, the multiplicity formula was proved by Duflo and Vergne [8], via very different methods. Our result has applications to multiplicityfree restrictions of admissible representations.