Abstract. Given a unitary representation U of an Abelian group G and a subgroup H, we characterise the positive operator valued measures based on the quotient group G/H and covariant with respect to U. 1.
Given a topological group G and a unitary representation U of G, we consider the problem of classifying the positive operator measures which are based on a G-homogeneous space X and covariant with respect to the representation U. We completely solve the problem in two cases: 1) when G is abelian; 2) when G is not abelian, X has compact stbiliser in G and the representation U is irreducible. We then give an application of the above results to the characterisation of covariant position and momentum observables in quantum mechanics, and to the determination of those covariant position and momentum observables that are jointly measurable.
Positive-operator-valued observables in a complex Hilbert space H based on a topological homogeneous space G/H and G-covariant with respect to a strongly continuous unitary representation on H of a locally compact group G are investigated. The goal is to determine whether they are the weak integrals of some positive-operator-valued densities relative to a G-quasi-invariant measure μ on G/H. To this end, the notion of a kernel Hilbert space is generalized to spaces of equivalence classes with respect to μ of mappings of G/H into a complex Hilbert space K.