The theta correspondence and harmonic forms. I (Q1076712)

Let V, (, ) be a vector space over \({\mathbb{R}}\), \({\mathbb{C}}\) or \({\mathbb{H}}\) with a (hermitian) form of signature (p,q); let D be the symmetric space attached to the isometry group G of V, (, ). For a given n with \(1\leq n\leq p\) or \(1\leq n\leq q\) the authors construct certain differential forms of degree \(\ell =nq\), 2nq, 3nq or np, 2np, 4np on D with values in the Schwartz functions \(S(V^ n)\), more precisely, elements \(\phi\) in \((S(V^ n)_{\alpha}\otimes \Omega^{\ell}(D))^ G\) where G acts diagonally (and the letter \(\alpha\) indicates that the natural action of G on the Schwartz space \(S(V^ n)\) is twisted by a character of G). It is shown that these forms are closed. The construction of these forms is of interest since they give rise to automorphic cohomology classes for arithmetic quotients \(\Gamma\) \(\setminus D\) of D. This application is contained in 'The theta correspondence and harmonic forms. II' (preprint) by the authors. There, in particular, these classes are geometrically interpreted. The construction of the forms \(\phi\) uses ideas of R. Howe which are contained in his still unpublished preprint 'Remarks on classical invariant theory'. Via the oscillator representation one obtains in this way a unified approach to the construction in all three cases (i.e. \(G=O(p,q)\), U(p,q) and Sp(p,q)). The closedness of \(\phi\) is shown by interpreting the differential d in the complex \((S(V^ n)_{\alpha}\otimes \Omega^{\ell}(D))^ G\) as an element of the universal enveloping algebra of a certain Lie superalgebra which acts on the complex and then relating it to the Howe operators used in the construction of \(\phi\).