Kazhdan, Kostant, Binegar–Zierau and Kobayashi–Ørsted constructed a distinguished infinite-dimensional irreducible unitary representation π of the indefinite orthogonal group G = O(2p, 2q) for p, q ≥ 1 with p + q > 2, which has the smallest Gelfand–Kirillov dimension 2p + 2q - 3 among all infinite-dimensional irreducible unitary representations of G and hence is called the minimal representation. We consider, for which subgroup G′ of G, the restriction π|G′ is multiplicity-free. We prove that the restriction of π to any subgroup containing the direct product group U(p1) × U(p2) × U(q) for p1, p2 ≥ 1 with p1 + p2 = p is multiplicity-free, whereas the restriction to U(p1) × U(p2) × U(q1) × U(q2) for q1, q2 ≥ 1 with q1 + q2 = q has infinite multiplicities.
Infinite-Dimensional Multiplicity-Free Spaces I: Limits of Compact Commutative Spaces