Heisenberg group of the Heisenberg group is fairly simple – later generalized by Mackey theory – and was the motivation for its introduction in quantum physics, as discussed below. For each nonzero real number formula_27, we can define an irreducible unitary representation formula_48 of formula_31 acting on the Hilbert space formula_50 by the formula: This representation is known as the Schrödinger representation. The motivation for the this representation is the action of the exponentiated position and momentum operators in quantum mechanics. The parameter formula_52 describes translations in position space, the parameter formula_53 describes translations in momentum space, and the parameter formula_54 gives
Heisenberg group group of a locally compact abelian group "K", equipped with a Haar measure. Such a group has a Pontrjagin dual formula_101, consisting of all continuous formula_102-valued characters on "K", which is also a locally compact abelian group if endowed with the compact-open topology. The Heisenberg group associated with the locally compact abelian group "K" is the subgroup of the unitary group of formula_103 generated by translations from "K" and multiplications by elements of formula_101. In more detail, the Hilbert space formula_103 consists of square-integrable complex-valued functions formula_106 on "K". The translations in "K" form a unitary representation of "K" as