No label defined (Q4369293)

This article is devoted to giving an overview of the nature of the Selberg trace formula, in an adelic setting, for GL(2) and of its applications. The Selberg trace formula was first introduced by Selberg in 1953 as an analogue of the Kronecker class-number formulae [see \textit{A. Selberg}, Collected papers, Vol. 1 (1989; Zbl 0675.10001), p. 671]. Later \textit{H. Jacquet} and \textit{R. P. Langlands} [Automorphic forms on GL(2), Lect. Notes Math. 114 (1970; Zbl 0236.12010)] put an entirely different emphasis on the formula by showing that it could be used to compare automorphic representations of two similar but different algebraic groups. This yields theorems of great arithmetic interest which extend the classical Kronecker relations. This paper describes in some detail how the Selberg trace formula is proved in the context used by Jacquet and Langlands, how it is used to prove comparison theorems and, briefly, how it should fit into a more general context. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0878.00050].