An exact formula relating lattice points in symmetric spaces to the automorphic spectrum (Q2441062)

The paper under review gives an exact formula for the number of lattice points in an expanding region of the Riemannian symmetric space \(G/K\) relative to the base point \(x_0 := 1 \cdot K \in G/K\), where \(G\) is a complex semisimple Lie group of odd rank, and \(K\) is a maximal compact subgroup. More precisely, lattice points of \(G/K\) are defined with respect to a cocompact lattice \(\Gamma \subset G\). One novelty of this paper is that, instead of the much-used approaches via various trace formulas, here the study is based on a study of differential equations of the form \((\Delta - \lambda_z)^\nu v_z = \delta_{x_0}\) (i.e. fundamental solution) on \(X := \Gamma \backslash G/K\), where \(\lambda_z\) is some complex parameter, \(\nu \in \mathbb{Z}\) and \(\Delta\) is the Casimir operator for \(\mathfrak{g}\). The exact formula is obtained by deriving two descriptions of \(v_z\). The first one is ``geometric'': one starts from the free space solution \(f\), i.e. the same question for the symmetric space \(G/K\), and pass to \(X\) by forming the Poincaré series \(g \mapsto \sum_{\gamma \in \Gamma} f(\gamma g)\). The second one the ``spectral'': the theory of automorphic Sobolev spaces yields a solution in terms of the automorphic spectrum for \(X\). The main technical ingredient thereof, namely the automorphic Sobolev spaces, is developed by \textit{P. Garrett} [Global automorphic Sobolev spaces, preprint (2011)] and the author.