On the regularized Siegel-Weil formula (the second term identity) and non-vanishing of theta lifts from orthogonal groups

Abstract

We derive a (weak) second term identity for the regularized Siegel-Weil formula for the even orthogonal group, which is used to obtain a Rallis inner product formula in the "second term range". As an application, we show the following non-vanishing result of global theta lifts from orthogonal groups. Let $\pi$ be a cuspidal automorphic representation of an orthogonal group $O(V)$ with $\dim V=m$ even and $r+1\leq m\leq 2r$. Assume further that there is a place $v$ such that $\pi_v\cong\pi_v\otimes\det$. Then the global theta lift of $\pi$ to $Sp_{2r}$ does not vanish up to twisting by automorphic determinant characters if the (incomplete) standard $L$-function $L^S(s,\pi)$ does not vanish at $s=1+\frac{2r-m}{2}$. Note that we impose no further condition on $V$ or $\pi$. We also show analogous non-vanishing results when $m > 2r$ (the "first term range") in terms of poles of $L^S(s,\pi)$ and consider the "lowest occurrence" conjecture of the theta lift from the orthogonal group.