Local boundary data of eigenfunctions on a Riemannian symmetric space (Q912346)

Let \(X=G\setminus K\) be a Riemannian symmetric space of the noncompact type and let \({\mathbb{D}}(X)\) be the algebra of invariant differential operators on X. Let \({\mathfrak a}\) be a maximal abelian split subspace of the Lie algebra \({\mathfrak g}\) of G, and denote by \({\mathfrak a}^*_ c\) its complexified dual. If \(\lambda\in {\mathfrak a}^*_ c\), let \({\mathcal E}_{\lambda}(X)\) be the joint eigenspace of functions \(f\in C^{\infty}(X)\) satisfying \(Df=\chi_{\lambda}(D)f\), \(D\in {\mathbb{D}}(X)\), where \(\chi_{\lambda}\) is constructed in a canonical way be means of Harish-Chandra's isomorphism. In a previous work, the authors have proved that if \(f\in {\mathcal E}_{\lambda}(X)\), one has the asymptotic expansion (in the distribution sense) f(x exp tH)\(\sim \sum_{\xi \in X(\lambda)}p_{\xi}(x,tH)e^{t\xi (H)}\), \(x\in G\), \(H\in {\mathfrak a}^+\), \(t\to +\infty\), where \(X(\lambda)=\{w\lambda -\rho -\mu\), \(w\in W\), \(\mu\in {\mathbb{N}}\Sigma \}\); here W is the Weyl group and \(\Sigma\) the set of restricted roots. In the present paper, the authors prove the following: if \(\emptyset \neq U\) is an open subset of G and if \(p_{\xi}=0\) on \(U\times {\mathfrak a}\) for all \(\xi\in W\lambda -\rho\), then \(f\equiv 0\). As an application of their techniques they also show that earlier results of Oshima and Matsuki on the existence of the discrete series can be obtained without microlocal analysis.