Direct Integrals

Direct integrals are a generalization of direct sums. For a compact group every representation is a direct sum of irreducibles. This property fails in general for non-compact groups. The best one can get for general groups is a direct integral decomposition into factor representations. The latter is a notion more general than irreducibility. For nice groups these notions coincide, and then every unitary representation is a direct integral of irreducible representations.