On the meromorphic extension of the spherical functions on noncompactly causal symmetric spaces (Q5933455)

Let \({\mathcal M}=G/H\) be a noncompactly causal symmetric space, i.e. a non-Riemannian symmetric space with a \(G\)-invariant order structure such that the order intervals are compact. For such spaces one has a theory of spherical functions (not just distributions) which parallels to large extent the Harish-Chandra theory of spherical functions on Riemannian symmetric spaces. In particular, there is a family \((\varphi_\lambda)_{\lambda \in{\mathcal E}}\) of \(H\)-biinvariant eigenfunctions \(\varphi_\lambda: H\exp(C^0_{ \max})\to\mathbb{C}\) for the invariant differential operators on \(G/H\). Here \(C_{\max}\) is the tangent cone of the positive domain in \({\mathcal M}\) and \(C^0_{ \max}\) its interior. The \(\varphi_\lambda\) are given by an integral formula and their asymptotic behavior is described by a ``\(c\)-function'' \(c_\Omega (\lambda) \). The present paper shows how to construct meromorphic extensions of \(\lambda\mapsto \varphi_\lambda\) and \(c_\Omega\) from \({\mathcal E}\subseteq {\mathfrak a}^*_\mathbb{C}\), where \({\mathfrak a}\) is a maximal abelian subspace of \({\mathfrak p}\cap {\mathfrak q}\) for the usual decomposition \({\mathfrak g}= {\mathfrak k}+{\mathfrak p}={\mathfrak h} +{\mathfrak q}\) of the Lie algebra \({\mathfrak g}\) of \(G\) induced by \(G/H\) and a compatible Cartan involution. The method used is to apply a version of the classical Bernstein theorem to the integrand of the spherical function. In the case of rank one spaces the authors can determine the corresponding Bernstein polynomials and this leads them to a conjecture concerning the general case. Further they show that a positive solution of this conjecture would yield a simple proof for the product formula for \(c_\Omega\) established by \textit{B. Krötz} and \textit{G. Ólafsson} [The \(c\)-function for non-compactly causal symmetric spaces (1999)]. That the conjecture is plausible is underpinned by a result on the set of poles of \(\lambda\mapsto \varphi_\lambda\) which could also be derived easily from the conjecture and is proved in the appendix using the Heckman-Opdam theory of generalized hypergeometric functions.