Harmonic analysis on hyperboloids

The regular representation of O(n, N) acting on $\text{L}{}^2\text{(}\text{O(n, N)}\text{O(n, N ? 1)}\text{)}$ is decomposed into a direct integral of irreducible representations. The homogeneous space $\text{O(n, N)}\text{O(n, N ? 1)}$ is realized as the Hyperboloid $\text{H = {(x, t) ? R}{}^{\mathrm{n\; +\; N}}\text{: ¦ t ¦}{}^2\text{? ¦ x ¦}{}^2\text{= 1}}$. The problem is essentially equivalent to finding the spectral resolution of a certain self-adjoint invariant differential operator □_h on H, which is the tangential part of the operator □ = Δ_x ? Δ_t on R^{n + N}. The spectrum of □_h contains a discrete part (except when N = 1) with eigenfunctions generated by restricting to H solutions of □u = 0 which vanish in the region $\text{¦ t ¦ < ¦ x ¦}$, and a continuous part $\text{H}$_?. As a representation of O(n, N), $\text{H}$_? ⊕ $\text{H}$_? is unitarily equivalent to the regular representation on L² of the cone $\text{{(x, t) : ¦ x ¦}{}^2\text{= ¦ t ¦}{}^2\text{}}$, and the intertwining operator is obtained by solving the equation □u = 0 with given boundary values on the cone. Explicit formulas are given for the spectral decomposition. The special case n = N = 2 gives the Plancherel formula for SL(2, R).