A note on multiplicities of singular representations in the discrete spectrum of Sl(2,\({\mathbb{R}})/\Gamma\) (Q757615)

The authors consider the problem of multiplicities of representations with singular infinitesimal character in \(L^ 2(G/\Gamma)\) in terms of the cohomology of the locally symmetric variety \(K\setminus G/\Gamma\), where \(G=Sl(2,{\mathbb{R}})\) and \(\Gamma\) is a cocompact discrete subgroup. Their perspective, in spirit, is the well known relation between the cohomology of a local system \(\tilde V\) associated to an irreducible, finite dimensional representation of G and the (\({\mathfrak g},K)\) cohomology \(H^*({\mathfrak g},K,\Pi \otimes V)\) where \(\Pi\) appears in \(L^ 2(G/\Gamma)\). Their interest stems from the fact that many interesting unitary representations, e.g. many unipotent representations in the sense of Arthur, have trivial (\({\mathfrak g},K)\) cohomology so that index theorems make no statement about \(L^ 2\)-multiplicities. For the case at hand, the authors consider the two limits of discrete series representations \(\pi_ 0^{\pm}\) and prove \[ \dim H^*(K\setminus G/\Gamma,S)=2(m(\Gamma,\pi^+_ 0)+m(\Gamma,\pi^-_ 0)), \] where S is the sheaf of \(C^{\infty}\)-sections of the vector bundle \((K\setminus G)\times_{\Gamma}V_ 2\) annihilated by a second order elliptic differential operator and the right side denotes \(L^ 2\)-multiplicities. Here \(V_ 2\) is the standard two-dimensional representation of G. No use is made of the complex structure of the variety. It is observed that the techniques involved can be extended to more general cases with the center of the enveloping algebra replacing the single operator. Other brief remarks are made and some questions raised.