Peter-Weyl theorem

For a compact group, the matrix coefficients of its finite-dimensional irreducible unitary representations span a dense subspace of $C(G)$ and form a complete orthogonal decomposition of $L^2(G)$ with Haar measure. If $K$ is a closed subgroup and $W$ is a finite-dimensional unitary $K$-representation, the space of L2 sections of the associated homogeneous bundle has multiplicity $\dim {\mathrm{Hom}}_K(E{|}_K,W)$ for each irreducible $G$-representation $E$. This is the compact-group form of Frobenius reciprocity and determines homogeneous-bundle multiplicities from isotropy weights.

Suppose finite-dimensional continuous group representations separate points of a compact Lie group. Choose an identity neighborhood $U$ containing no nontrivial subgroup, using Lie groups have no small subgroups. For each $g\notin U$, choose a representation whose matrix at $g$ is not the identity. The corresponding open nonidentity sets cover the compact complement of $U$, so finitely many representations suffice there. Their direct sum has kernel inside $U$ and therefore trivial kernel. Unitarization of a compact-group representation makes it a finite-dimensional faithful unitary representation.

A continuous symmetric approximate identity on a compact group gives a compact self-adjoint convolution operator $T$ on $L^2(G)$ which maps into $C(G)$ and commutes with left translations. Its nonzero eigenspaces are finite-dimensional invariant spaces of continuous functions, hence consist of matrix coefficients of finite-dimensional unitary representations. If $S_N$ projects onto increasing finite sums of these eigenspaces, $S_{N}Tf\to Tf$ in $L^2$, and the bound $\Vert Th{\Vert }_{\infty }\le \Vert k{\Vert }_2\Vert h{\Vert }_2$ gives $T{S}_{N}Tf\to T^{2}f$ uniformly. Choosing the approximate identity narrow makes $T^{2}f$ uniformly close to $f$. This supplies uniform approximation without confusing an $L^2$ limit with a uniform limit.

For a compact group $G$, closed subgroup $K$ and finite-dimensional unitary $K$-representation $W$, induced sections are functions satisfying $f(gk)=k^{-1}f(g)$. A $K$-intertwiner $\varphi :E\to W$ produces the $G$-intertwiner $v\mapsto (g\mapsto \varphi (g^{-1}v))$. Evaluation at the identity reverses this construction on each finite-dimensional continuous representation summand. Thus the multiplicity of an irreducible $E$ in the induced section space is $\dim {\mathrm{Hom}}_K(E{|}_K,W)$.