Spectral theory of commuting self-adjoint partial differential operators

Let Ω denote a connected and open subset of $\text{R}$ⁿ. The existence of n commuting self-adjoint operators H₁,…, H_n on $\text{L}{}^2\text{(Ω)}$ such that each H_j is an extension of $\text{−}\text{i∂}\text{∂x}{}_{\mathrm{j}}$ (acting on $\text{C}{}_{\mathrm{c}}{}^{\mathrm{\infty }}\text{(Ω))}$ is shown to be equivalent to the existence of a measure μ on $\text{R}$ⁿ such that f → $\text{}\text{̂}$tf (the Fourier transform of f) is unitary from $\text{L}{}^2\text{(Ω)}$ onto Ω. It is shown that the support of μ can be chosen as a subgroup of $\text{R}$ⁿ iff H₁,…, H_n can be chosen such that the unitary groups generated by H₁,…, H_n act multiplicatively on $\text{L}{}^2\text{(Ω)}$. This happens iff Ω (after correction by a null set) forms a system of representatives for the quotient of $\text{R}$ⁿ by some subgroup, i.e., iff Ω is essentially a fundamental domain.