Matrix Valued Spherical Functions Associated to the Three Dimensional Hyperbolic Space

The main purpose of this paper is to compute all irreducible spherical functions on $G={SL}(2,{\mathbb C})$ of arbitrary type $\delta\in \hat K$, where $K={SU}(2)$. This is accomplished by associating to a spherical function $\Phi$ on $G$ a matrix valued function $H$ on the three dimensional hyperbolic space ${\mathbb H}=G/K$. The entries of $H$ are solutions of two coupled systems of ordinary differential equations. By an appropriate twisting involving Hahn polynomials we uncouple one of the systems and express the entries of $H$ in terms of Gauss' functions ${}_2F_1$. Just as in the compact instance treated in [GPT] there is a useful role for a special class of generalized hypergeometric functions ${}_{p+1}F_p$.