Spherical representations of Lie supergroups

Abstract

The classical Cartan-Helgason theorem characterises finite-dimensional spherical representations of reductive Lie groups in terms of their highest weights. We generalise the theorem to the case of a reductive symmetric supergroup pair $(G,K)$ of even type. Along the way, we compute the Harish-Chandra $c$-function of the symmetric superspace $G/K$. By way of an application, we show that all spherical representations are self-dual in type AIII|AIII.