Higher Siegel theta lifts on Lorentzian lattices, harmonic Maass forms, and Eichler-Selberg type relations (Q2152843)

Realising rationality and algebraicity is one of the most important applications of the results of investigations into certain theta lifts and their relationship to modular objects. \textit{J. H. Bruinier} et al. in their recent paper [Invent. Math. 225, No. 3, 693--785 (2021; Zbl 07387421)] made a major advance towards the Gross-Zagier conjecture by proving that a certain two-variable Green function evaluated at CM points in one variable and an average over CM points in the other variable takes algebraic values. The author of the paper under review uses the connection between the Green function and a ``higher'' Siegel theta lift on lattices of signature $(1, 2)$ to investigate traces of cycle integrals of a certain cusp form. The author gives a series representation of the lift in terms of Gauss hypergeometric functions, and evaluate the lift as the constant term of a Fourier series involving the Rankin-Cohen bracket of harmonic Maass forms and theta functions. Using the higher Siegel lifts,we obtain a vector-valued analogue of Mertens' result stating that the Rankin-Cohen bracket of the holomorphic part of a harmonic Maass form of weight $3/2$ and a unary theta function. The paper under review presents a new proof of conjecture of Cohen which was originally proved by Mertens, as well as a novel proof of a theorem of \textit{S. Ahlgren} and \textit{B. Kim} [J. Number Theory 189, 81--89 (2018; Zbl 1447.11059)], each in the scalar-valued case. The paper is professionally written with strong results as a good sources for interested researchers in the fields.