The Clebsch–Gordan problem of the SL(2,R) coherent states

Abstract

The Clebsch–Gordan problems of the Barut–Girardello, and Perelomov coherent states of SL(2,R) are studied using the associated Hilbert spaces as the respective carrier spaces of the representations of the group. For the Barut–Girardello coherent states this Hilbert space is a subspace of the Bargmann–Segal Hilbert space B(C2) called the ‘‘reduced Bargmann space.’’ The generators of the group in this realization are essentially the boson operators of Holman and Biedenharn which provide a convenient starting point of the problem. For the Perelomov coherent states the associated Hilbert space turns out to be Bargmann’s canonical carrier space for the realization of the discrete series of representations, namely, the Hilbert space of functions analytic inside the open unit disc. The scalar product, the principal vector, and a complete orthonormal set in these Hilbert spaces are constructed and used for the explicit evaluation of the Clebsch–Gordan coefficients. For each of the coherent state systems the product state turns out to be the principal vector and, therefore, the coupled state itself is the Clebsch–Gordan coefficient. For the Barut–Girardello coherent states this is, apart from normalization, the product of a Bessel function and d-function. For the Perelomov coherent states, on the other hand, this closely resembles the Clebsch–Gordan coefficient of the SU(2) coherent states.