On the regular representation of a nonunimodular locally compact group

Abstract

We study the discrete part of the regular representation of a locally compact group and also its Type I part if the group is separable. Our results extend to nonunimodular groups' known results for unimodular groups about formal degrees of square integrable representations, and the Plancherel formula. We establish orthogonality relations for matrix coefficients of square integrable representations and we show that the formal degree in general is not a positive number, but a positive self-adjoint unbounded operator, semi-invariant under the representation. Integrable representations are also studied in this context. Finally we show that when the group is nonunimodular, “Plancherel measure” is not a true measure, but a measure multiplied by a section of a certain real oriented line bundle on the dual space of the group.