Cuspidal functions and diophantine approximation (Q2277005)

An example of a family of non-compact locally symmetric spaces parametrized by real numbers is given for which the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian is governed by the Diophantine approximation of the parameters. This is connected with the presence of flat or positively curved de Rham factors in the universal covering (symmetric) space. We prove the rapid decrease of cuspidal functions on an arbitrary locally-symmetric space provided it has a certain Diophantine property weaker than that assumed in Langlands' spectral theory of automorphic forms. The assumption of Langlands is shown to be fulfilled if the covering transformation group possesses no factors of rank one.