Intertwining operators and residues. I: Weighted characters (Q1822644)

Let G be a reductive algebraic group over a local field F of characteristic 0. Let \(\Pi\) (G(F)) denote the set of equivalence classes of irreducible representations of G(F). The irreducible characters \(J_ G(\pi,f)=tr \pi (f)\), \(\pi\in \Pi (G(F))\), \(f\in {\mathcal H}(G(F))\) are linear functionals on \({\mathcal H}(G(F))\), the Hecke algebra of G(F). A weighted character which is connected with the general Selberg trace formula is a certain linear form on the algebra \(\{\) \(\pi\) (f): \(f\in {\mathcal H}(G(F))\}\) and is not in general the trace. The contents of the paper under review is a careful investigation of the weighted characters as functions of \(\pi\).