Eisenstein cohomology of arithmetic groups. The case \(GL_ 2\) (Q1093669)

Let F be a number field and \(G=GL(2,F)\). This paper lays a careful foundation for studying the Eisenstein cohomology of arithmetic groups by giving a precise and general treatment for arithmetic subgroups \(\Gamma\) of G. It includes and extends results from several earlier papers of the same author. The cohomology of \(\Gamma\) with coefficients in a rational representation of G is studied, with particular care given to \({\mathbb{Q}}\)- structures on the various cohomology groups. Adelic methods are used throughout by taking limits as \(\Gamma\) shrinks. The cohomology of the boundary of the Borel-Serre compactification of the locally symmetric spaces attached to the \(\Gamma\) 's is described in terms of algebraic Hecke characters on the maximal split torus. The image I of the whole cohomology in the boundary is computed in terms of these algebraic Hecke characters. The answer depends on special values and poles of the Hecke L-functions attached to the characters. The main method here is to represent cohomology classes ``induced from the boundary'' by differential forms which are Eisenstein series as defined by Selberg and Langlands. This provides a map back from I to the cohomology which is almost completely defined over \({\mathbb{Q}}\). As a corollary, one obtains results about the algebraicity of ratios of special values of L-functions and the transformation law of those ratios under the Galois groups of \({\mathbb{Q}}.\) In the last section, the Eisenstein cohomology classes are integrated over cycles attached to quadratic extensions of F, again with care given to the \({\mathbb{Q}}\)-structures. A similar algebraicity corollary is deduced.