On multiplicities for \(\text{SL}(n)\) (Q1343851)

Let \(F\) be a number field and \(\mathbb{A}_F\) its adele ring. The central problem of the theory of automorphic forms for \(\text{SL}_n\) is to understand the decomposition of the unitary representation of the group \(\text{SL}_n (\mathbb{A}_F)\) on the space \(L^2 (\text{SL}_n (F) \smallsetminus \text{SL}_n (\mathbb{A}_F))\). For any irreducible unitary representation \(\pi\) of \(\text{SL}_n (\mathbb{A}_F)\) let \(m (\pi)\) denote the multiplicity of \(\pi\) as subrepresentation of \(L^2 (\text{SL}_n (F) \smallsetminus \text{SL}_n (\mathbb{A}_F))\). It is known that \(m(\pi)\) is always finite. The theory would be a great deal easier if \(m (\pi)\) were always less than or equal to one. The present paper shows that for \(n\geq 3\) this property fails to hold. It is shown that there exist infinitely many number fields \(F\) with a \(\pi\) such that \(m (\pi)>1\). Even more, if \(n\equiv 0, 1, 3\;(4)\) then for any \(F\) there are infinitely many such \(\pi\).