Orthogonal stochastic duality functions from Lie algebra representations

Abstract

We obtain stochastic duality functions for specific Markov processes using representation theory of Lie algebras. The duality functions come from the kernel of a unitary intertwiner between $*$-representations, which provides (generalized) orthogonality relations for the duality functions. In particular, we consider representations of the Heisenberg algebra and $\mathfrak{su}(1,1)$. Both cases lead to orthogonal (self-)duality functions in terms of hypergeometric functions for specific interacting particle processes and interacting diffusion processes.