Class numbers of positive definite binary and ternary unimodular Hermitian forms (Q5903909)

The paper is a continuation of the paper reviewed above (Zbl 0668.10029). Let K be an imaginary quadratic field with the ring \({\mathcal O}\) of integers, (V,H) a positive definite Hermitian space over K. In that paper the authors gave a closed expression for the class number of a genus of \({\mathcal O}\)-lattices in (V,H), using an arithmetical version of Selberg trace formula. Here the genus and the class number are defined with respect to the unitary group U(V,H) or the special unitary group SU(V,H). However local factors, arising from orbital integrals in the p-adic case, were not determined there. In the present paper the authors carry out the computation of the local factors, and hence derive explicit formulas for the class numbers, in the following cases: Case 1 (Theorem 0.1): \(\dim_ K V=2\), and \({\mathcal L}\) is an arbitrary genus of unimodular lattices. Case 2 (Theorems 0.2, 5.1): \(\dim_ K V=3\), H is equivalent to the unit matrix, and \({\mathcal L}\) is the principal genus. In Case 1, the genus and the class number are defined with respect to SU(V,H). The class number in this case is then reduced to the class number of a nonmaximal order in the quaternion algebra attached to (V,H). In Case 2, the genus etc. are defined with respect to U(V,H) throughout the main part of the paper. The computation of local factors turns out to be difficult in this case: the authors use, for example, ``lifting of lattices'' (Lemma 4.2). In Case 2 above, the authors show a simple relation between the U(V,H)- class number and the SU(V,H)-class number (Theorem 5.2). In the final section the authors calculate the dimension of automorphic forms on the compact group SU(V,H), in the case \(\dim_ K V=2\) or 3.