Arithmetic automorphic forms for the nonholomorphic discrete series of \(GSp(2)\) (Q1196382)

This article studies the rational structures on the spaces of cusp forms on the group \(GSp(2,\mathbb{Q})\) whose archimedean components belong to the nonholomorphic discrete series. The first main result is a ``branching formula'', concerning the behavior of a nonholomorphic discrete series representation of \(Sp(2,\mathbb{R})\) when restricted to the subgroup \(Sp(1,\mathbb{R})\times Sp(1,\mathbb{R})\), embedded diagonally. This permits one to reduce the theory of arithmetic automorphic forms for (sufficiently regular) nonholomorphic discrete series of \(GSp(2)\) to the theory of arithmetic elliptic modular forms. Employing this reduction and the theta correspondence, the authors then construct explicit nontrivial arithmetic automorphic forms on \(GSp(2)\) of the desired type. These forms are lifts to \(GSp(2)\) of cusp forms on \(GO(B)\), where \(GO(B)\) is the group of orthogonal similitudes of the norm form of an indefinite quaternion algebra \(B\) over the rationals. Discrete series cusp forms on \(GO(B)\) define coherent cohomology classes in degrees 0, 1, and 2 on the two- dimensional Shimura variety attached to \(GO(B)\). The authors show that up to suitable normalization, the theta-lifting from cusp forms on \(GO(B)\) to cusp forms on \(GSp(2)\) respects the \(\overline \mathbb{Q}\)-rational structures on the coherent cohomology in degrees 1 and 2, at least when the parameters are sufficiently regular. As the nonvanishing of these theta-liftings was established by \textit{R. Howe} and \textit{I. I. Piatetski- Shapiro} in the case that \(B=M(2,\mathbb{Q})\) [Duke Math. J. 50, 55-106 (1983; 529.22012)], this construction yields nontrivial arithmetic automorphic forms for every sufficiently regular (``far from the walls'') nonholomorphic discrete series representation of \(Sp(2,\mathbb{R})\).