On the symmetric square. Unstable twisted characters (Q1812260)

This paper is devoted to aspects of the representation theory of the groups of the form \(\text{PGL}(3,F)\) where \(F\) is a local field. The goal is the description, using trace formula methods, of the symmetric square ``lift'' to this group from \(\text{SL}(2)\) both locally and globally; as such this paper is a continuation of the paper by \textit{Y. Z. Flicker} and \textit{D. A. Kazhdan} [Invent. Math. 91, 493-504 (1988; Zbl 0637.10022)]. The main part of it is a local computation of the appropriately twisted character of the representation of \(\text{PGL}(3,F)\) induced from the constant one-dimensional representation of a maximal parabolic subgroup. The calculation is reduced to the computation of an infinite sequence of certain \(p\)-adic ``volumes'' which are then computed directly. The result is used in loc. cit.