Norm continuous unitary representations of Lie algebras of smooth sections

Abstract

We give a complete description of the bounded (i.e. norm continuous) unitary representations of the Fr\'echet-Lie algebra of all smooth sections, as well as of the LF-Lie algebra of compactly supported smooth sections, of a smooth Lie algebra bundle whose typical fiber is a compact Lie algebra. For the Lie algebra of all sections, bounded unitary irreducible representations are finite tensor products of so-called evaluation representations, hence in particular finite-dimensional. For the Lie algebra of compactly supported sections, bounded unitary irreducible (factor) representations are possibly infinite tensor products of evaluation representations, which reduces the classification problem to results of Glimm and Powers on irreducible (factor) representations of UHF C*-algebras. The key part in our proof is the classification of irreducible bounded unitary representations of Lie algebras that are the tensor product of a compact Lie algebra and a unital real continuous inverse algebra: every such representation is a finite product of evaluation representations. On the group level, our results cover in particular the bounded unitary representations of the identity component of the group of smooth gauge transformations of a principal fiber bundle with compact base and structure group, and the connected component of the group of special unitary n times n matrices with values in an involutive commutative continuous inverse algebra.