This volume, the second of Helgason's three books on Lie groups and the geometry and analysis of symmetric spaces, is an introduction to group-theoretic methods in analysis on spaces with a group action. The first chapter deals with the three two-dimensional spaces of constant curvature, requiring only elementary methods and no Lie theory. It would be suitable for a first-year graduate course. The remainder of the book covers more advanced topics, including the work of Harish-Chandra and others, but especially that of ...
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This volume, the second of Helgason's three books on Lie groups and the geometry and analysis of symmetric spaces, is an introduction to group-theoretic methods in analysis on spaces with a group action. The first chapter deals with the three two-dimensional spaces of constant curvature, requiring only elementary methods and no Lie theory. It would be suitable for a first-year graduate course. The remainder of the book covers more advanced topics, including the work of Harish-Chandra and others, but especially that of Helgason himself. Indeed, the exposition can be seen as an account of the author's tremendous contributions to the subject. Chapter I deals with modern integral geometry and radon transforms. The second chapter examines the interconnection between Lie groups and differential operators. Chapter IV develops the theory of spherical functions on semisimple Lie groups with a certain degree of completeness, including a study of Harish-Chandra's $c$-function.
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