Solvable base change (Q2661300)

For cyclic extensions of number fields of prime degree, the base change for \(\mathrm{GL}(2)\) was studied in the seminal work of \textit{R. P. Langlands} [Base change for \(\mathrm{GL}(2)\). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1980; Zbl 0444.22007)], following earlier work of Saito and Shintani. This was further generalized to \(\mathrm{GL}(n)\) by Arthur and the first named author of the paper under review. \textit{E. Lapid} and \textit{J. Rogawski} [Forum Math. 10, No. 2, 175--197 (1998; Zbl 1069.11018)] considered the problem of characterizing the image and fibers of base change for cyclic extensions of non-prime degree. They conjectured the non-existence of certain types of cusp forms on \(\mathrm{GL}(n)\), and proved the conjecture when \(n=2\). In the paper under review, the authors prove the conjecture of Lapid and Rogawski. More precisely, they prove the following result. Let \(E/F\) be a cyclic extension of positive degree, and \(\sigma\in \mathrm{Gal}(E/F)\) be a generator. Let \(\omega\) be an idele class character of \(E\), whose restriction to the idele class group \(C_F\) is the character \(\varepsilon_{E/F}\) corresponding to the extension \(E/F\) via class field theory. Then there exists no cuspidal automorphic representation \(\Pi\) of \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbf{A}_E)\) such that \[ {}^\sigma\Pi\cong \Pi\otimes \omega. \] The proof relies on the stabilization of the twisted trace formula, which is due to Moeglin and Waldspurger. Based on this result, the authors give a detailed proof for the structure theorem of Lapid and Rogawski for cuspidal automorphic representations \(\pi\) of \(\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbf{A}_E)\) such that \({}^\sigma\pi\cong \pi\otimes\omega\) for a character \(\omega\). They also give a proof for the theorem of the second named author characterizing the image and fibers of base change for solvable extensions of number fields [\textit{C. S. Rajan}, Math. Res. Lett. 9, No. 4, 499--508 (2002; Zbl 1165.11317)], which explains the tile of this paper.