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The Plancherel formula for the universal covering group of $SL(2, R)$ derived earlier by Pukanszky on which Herb and Wolf build their Plancherel theorem for general semisimple groups is reconsidered. It is shown that a set of unitarily equivalent representations is treated by these authors as distinct. Identification of this equivalence results in a Plancherel measure ($s\mathrm{Re}\tanh\pi(s+\frac{i\tau}{2}), 0\leq\tau<1)$ which is different from the Pukanszky-Herb-Wolf measure ($s\mathrm{Re}\tanh\pi(s+i\tau), 0\leq\tau<1)$., Comment: Since a substitution changes f(z) to a multi-valued function we will remove the argument given in the introduction which was never used in the text. Everything comes out naturally from the integral kernel of the group ring

The character of the principal series of representations of SL(n,R) is evaluated by using Gel'fand and Naimark's definition of character. This representation is realized in the space of functions defined on the right coset space of SL(n,R) with respect to the subgroup of real triangular matrices. This form of the representations considerably simplifies the problem of determination of the integral kernel of the group ring which is fundamental in the Gel'fand-Naimark theory of character. An important feature of the principal series of representations is that the `elliptic' elements of SL(n,R) do not contribute to its character., Comment: 33 pages

The character of the exceptional series of representations of SU(1,1) is determined by using Bargmann's realization of the representation in the Hilbert space $H_\sigma$ of functions defined on the unit circle. The construction of the integral kernel of the group ring turns out to be especially involved because of the non-local metric appearing in the scalar product with respect to which the representations are unitary. Since the non-local metric disappears in the `momentum space' $i.e.$ in the space of the Fourier coefficients the integral kernel is constructed in the momentum space, which is transformed back to yield the integral kernel of the group ring in $H_\sigma$. The rest of the procedure is parallel to that for the principal series treated in a previous paper. The main advantage of this method is that the entire analysis can be carried out within the canonical framework of Bargmann., Comment: 19 pages, latex

The character problems of SU(2) and SU(1,1) are reexamined from the standpoint of a physicist by employing the Hilbert space method which is shown to yield a completely unified treatment for SU(2) and the discrete series of representations of SU(1,1). For both the groups the problem is reduced to the evaluation of an integral which is invariant under rotation for SU(2) and Lorentz transformation for SU(1,1). The integrals are accordingly evaluated by applying a rotation to a unit position vector in SU(2) and a Lorentz transformation to a unit SO(2,1) vector which is time-like for the elliptic elements and space-like for the hyperbolic elements in SU(1,1). The details of the procedure for the principal series of representations of SU(1,1) differ substantially from those of the discrete series., Comment: 31 pages, RevTeX, typos corrected. To be published in Journal of Mathematical Physics