| Abstract: | We present a new and constructive proof of the Peter‐Weyl theorem on the representations of compact groups. We use the Gelfand representation theorem for commutative C*‐algebras to give a proof which may be seen as a direct generalization of Burnside's algorithm 3]. This algorithm computes the characters of a finite group. We use this proof as a basis for a constructive proof in the style of Bishop. In fact, the present theory of compact groups may be seen as a natural continuation in the line of Bishop's work on locally compact, but Abelian, groups 2]. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) |
