Stable Bi-Period Summation Formula and Transfer Factors

This paper starts by introducing a bi-periodic summation formula for automorphic forms on a group G(E), with periods by a subgroup G(F), where E/F is a quadratic extension of number fields. The split case, where E = F ! F, is that of the standard trace formula. Then it introduces a notion of stable bi-conjugacy, and stabilizes the geometric side of the bi-period summation formula. Thus weighted sums in the stable bi-conjugacy class are expressed in terms of stable bi-orbital integrals. These stable integrals are on the same endoscopic groups H which occur in the case of standard conjugacy. The spectral side of the bi-period summation formula involves periods, namely integrals overthe group of F-adele points of G ,o f cusp forms on the group ofE-adele points on the group G. Our stabilization suggests that such cusp forms—with non vanishing periods—and the resulting bi-period distributions associated to "periodic" automorphic forms, are related to analogous bi-period distributions associated to "periodic" au- tomorphic forms on the endoscopic symmetric spaces H(E)/H(F). This offers a sharpening of the theory of liftings, where periods play a key role. The stabilization depends on the "fundamental lemma", which conjectures that the unit elements of the Hecke algebras on GandH havematching orbitalintegrals. Evenin stating this conjecture, oneneeds to intro- duce a "transfer factor". A generalization of the standard transfer factor to the bi-periodic case is introduced. The generalization depends on a new definition of the factors even in the standard case. Finally, the fundamental lemma is verified for SL(2). The geometric side of the trace formula for a test function f ! on the group of adele points of a reductive group G over a number field F ,i s as um of orbital integrals off ! parametrized by rational conjugacy classes, in G(F). It is obtained on integrating over the diagonal x = y the kernel Kf ! (x, y )o f ac onvolution operatorr(f ! ). Each such orbital integral can be expressed as an average of weighted sums of such orbital integrals over the stable conjugacy class, which is the set of rational points in the conjugacy class under the points of the group over the algebraic closure. Each such weighted sum is conjecturally related to a stable (a sum where all coefficients are equal to 1) such sum on an endoscopic group H of the group G.T his process of stabilization has been introduced by Langlands to establishliftingofautomorphicandadmissiblerepresentationsfromtheendoscopicgroups H to the original group G. The purpose of this paper is to develop an analogue in the context of the symmetric space G(E)/G(F), where E/F is a quadratic number field extension. Integrating the kernel Kf ! (x, y )o f the convolution operatorr(f ! ) for the test function f ! on the group of E- adele points of the group G over two independent variables x and y in the subgroup of F-adele points of G, we obtain a sum of bi-orbital integrals of f ! over rational bi-conjugacy classes. We introduce a notion of stable bi-conjugacy, and stabilize the geometric side of the bi-period summation formula. Thus we express the weighted sums in the stable bi