Global rigid inner forms and multiplicities of discrete automorphic representations (Q1656700)

Let \(F\) be a number field, \(G\) a connected reductive group defined over \(F\), and \(G(\mathbb A)\) the points of \(G\) over the adèle ring \(\mathbb A\). In the theory of automorphic forms, the Arthur-Langlands conjectures provide a description of the decomposition of the discrete automorphic representation given by the right regular representation of \(G(\mathbb A)\) on the Hilbert space \(L^2_{\text{disc}}(Z(\mathbb{A}) G(F) \backslash G(\mathbb{A}))\). For example, recall that every tempered discrete automorphic representations of \(G(\mathbb{A})\) belongs to an \(L\)-packet, and that these \(L\)-packets are parametrized by admissible tempered discrete homomorphisms \(\phi\) from a certain, conjecturally existent, group \(L_F\) (that projects onto the Weil group of \(F\)) into the \(L\)-group, the Langlands dual, of \(G\). The multiplicity \(m\) of a tempered discrete automorphic representation \(\pi\) inside \(L^2_{\text{disc}}(Z(\mathbb{A}) G(F) \;G(\mathbb{A}))\) is then, conjecturally, expressed by \[ m=|\mathcal{S}_\phi|^{-1} \sum_{x \in \mathcal{S}_\phi} \langle x, \pi \rangle \] where \[ \langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle : \mathcal{S}_\phi \times \Pi_\phi \to \mathbb{C}. \] is a spectral pairing between -- a finite group \(\mathcal{S}_\phi\) (\(\approx\) the centralizer of the image of \(\phi\) in \(\hat G\)), -- the \(L\)-packet that contains \(\pi\). When \(G\) is quasi-split, a precise statement of these conjectures have been known for a long time and important special cases have recently been proved. However, for non-quasi-split groups (for example, classical groups over division algebras) the approach developed by \textit{J. Arthur} [in: Orbites unipotentes et représentations. II: Groupes \(p\)-adiques et réels. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (1989; Zbl 0728.22014); Perspect. Math. 10, 1--75 (1990; Zbl 0692.10027)] to prove the description of the discrete automorphic spectrum by the stabilization of the trace formula (likewise for non-tempered representations by loc. cit.) was yet obstructed by the lack of, even in conjectural form, local versions of \(\langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle\). While Arthur's approach should still go through for non-quasi-split groups by Kottwitz's theory of isocrystals when -- the center is connected, -- or the Hasse principle holds; if either one of these fails, then this theory no longer applies. Behind the lack of such a spectral pairing lies on the local level the lack of a canonical normalization of the Langlands-Shelstad endoscopic transfer-factor; moreover, for place \(v\) of \(F\), a modification of the local analog \(\mathcal{S}_{\phi_v}\), of \(\mathcal{S}_\phi\) is necessary to make such a pairing possible. In [the author, Ann. Math. (2) 184, No. 2, 559--632 (2016; Zbl 1393.22009), Section 5] the author recently removed the \textit{local} obstructions by constructing these proper normalizations of certain local transfer factors and spectral pairings for non-quasi-split groups, that is, by showing that -- there is a natural normalization of the transfer factor, and -- a modification of the local analog of \(\mathcal{S}_\phi\), which gives rise to a conjectural canonically normalized perfect pairing between the \textit{local} \(L\)-packet and the modified \textit{local} analog of \(\mathcal{S}_\phi\). However, there is yet an obstacle on the global level to constructing the global pairing: these local normalized transfer factors and conjectural pairings depend on two refinements of the local endoscopic set-up: For every place \(v\) of \(F\) -- a rigidification \(z_v\) of a local inner twist datum of \(G^*\) (where \(G^*\) is a quasi-split group isomorphic to \(G\) over \(\bar F\)), and -- and a refinement of the local endoscopic datum which are based on certain cohomology groups \(H^1(u_v \to W_v)\). The global pairing \(\langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle\) is then defined as the infinite, well-defined, product, running over all places \(v\), of local pairings \(\langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle_{z_v}\) on \(\mathcal{S}^+_{\phi_v} \times \prod_{\phi_v}\) for a variant \(\mathcal{S}^+_{\phi_v}\) of \(\mathcal{S}_{\phi_v}\), and then projecting from \(\mathcal{S}^+_{\phi_v} \times \prod_{\phi_v} \to \mathcal{S}^+_\phi \times \prod_\phi\). This product depends though, a priori, on the choices of the local lifts \((z_v)\) of cohomology classes, that is, cocycles of \(H^1(u_v \to W_v, Z \to G)\) for a central subgroup \(Z \to G\), that influence the local pairings. The present paper overcomes this \textit{global} obstacle by imposing a \textit{coherence condition on this collection of local cocycles} \((z_v)\) however, the \textit{global} pairing becomes independent of these choices of lifts. By this coherence condition, the global pairing will moreover descend from \(\mathcal{S}^+_\phi\) to its quotient \(\mathcal{S}_\phi\). The formulation of this coherence condition necessitates the construction of the global analog \(H^1(P_{\dot V} \to \mathcal{E}_{\dot V})\) of the local cohomology functors \(H^1(u_v \to W_v)\). Here \(\mathcal{E}_{\dot V}\) is an isomorphism class of Galois gerbes over \(F\) specified by a canonical cohomology class in a certain Galois cohomology group \(H^2(\mathrm{Gal}(\bar F / F), P_{\dot V})\). This construction takes up a large part, Section 3, of the paper (while Section 4 contains the automorphic applications): The functor \(H^1(P_{\dot V} \to \mathcal{E}_{\dot V})\) then assigns to every central subgroup \(Z \to G\) a set \(H^1(P_{\dot V} \to \mathcal{E}_{\dot V}, Z \to G)\) with localization maps \[ H^1(P_{\dot V} \to \mathcal{E}_{\dot V}, Z \to G) \to H^1(u_v \to W_v, Z \to G). \] Then \((z_v)\) is defined as \textit{coherent} if it is in the image of the total localization. Finally a Tate-Nakayama duality isomorphism is proved that identifies \(H^1(P_{\dot V} \to \mathcal{E}_{\dot V}, Z \to G)\) with an abelian group constructed from the character module of \(G\); first for tori, then readily for reductive groups. The given proof is indirect and less explicit than in the local case in [loc. cit.]; a direct and explicit construction of it by \textit{O. Taïbi} can instead be found in [Algebra Number Theory 12, No. 4, 833--884 (2018; Zbl 1451.11027)]. By the Tate-Nakayama isomorphism, almost all localizations of an element in \(H^1(P_{\dot V} \to \mathcal{E}_{\dot V}, Z \to G)\) are trivial. This can be strengthened to almost all localizations being unramified on the level of cocycles by a result of Taïbi [loc. cit., Proposition 6.1.1].