Laguerre functions and representations of su(1,1)

Spectral analysis of a certain doubly infinite Jacobi operator leads to orthogonality relations for confluent hypergeometric functions, which are called Laguerre functions. This doubly infinite Jacobi operator corresponds to the action of a parabolic element of the Lie algebra su(1, 1). The Clebsch-Gordan coefficients for the tensor product representation of a positive and a negative discrete series representation of su(1, 1) are determined for the parabolic bases. They turn out to be multiples of Jacobi functions. From the interpretation of Laguerre polynomials and functions as overlap coefficients, we obtain a product formula for the Laguerre polynomials, given by an integral over Laguerre functions, Jacobi functions and continuous dual Hahn polynomials.