On the theory of Maass wave forms (Q2181290)

The textbook under review consists of 7 chapters and background material as an appendix. The main motivation of the authors is that they only focus on Maass wave forms as the main objects of interest and strive to give Maass wave forms a firm analytical treatment, only briefly pointing out connections with other fields in mathematics like representation theory, in contrast with other approaches exist in the literature. Surprisingly, the book starts with an ``Introductory roadmap'' section that sketches the content of this textbook through simple examples and brief explanations of certain concepts. Chapters 1 and 2 give a brief introduction to the theory of classical modular forms and period polynomials. Theorems are given without proofs and necessary citations are provided. There are enough examples to understand and reinforce well the concepts. Chapter 3 is reserved for Maass wave forms of real weight. After defining multiplier systems, the authors discuss three differential operators: the hyperbolic Laplace operator and the two Maass operators. Then, they introduce Maass wave forms of real weight and give some examples. They end this chapter up by discussing Hilbert spaces of Maass forms, Hecke operators, and the Friedrichs extension of the hyperbolic Laplace operator, concluding with a few remarks on the associated Selberg's conjecture. Chapters 4 and 5 are the main chapters of this textbook. They introduce the concept of families of Maass wave forms and discuss the associated \(L\)-series in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 introduces period functions associated with (families of) Maass wave forms. The above objects are presented in analogy with classical modular forms and their associated \(L\)-series and period polynomials. Chapter 6 connects Maass cusp forms (of weight 0) with discrete dynamical systems associated with the Artin billiard. The last chapter, Chapter 7, introduces weak harmonic Maass wave forms and their associated objects like mock modular period functions and regularized \(L\)-series. The textbook under review ends with an appendix where some theorems and results are briefly presented with helpful references in case more details are desired. The level of the textbook is suitable for master students and so on, but some proofs can easily be understood by advanced undergraduate students.