The Refined Gross-Prasad Conjecture for Unitary Groups

Abstract

Let F be a number field, A_F its ring of adeles, and let {\pi}_n and {\pi}_{n+1} be irreducible, cuspidal, automorphic representations of SO_n(A_F) and SO_{n+1}(A_F), respectively. In 1991, Benedict Gross and Dipendra Prasad conjectured the non-vanishing of a certain period integral attached to {\pi}_n and {\pi}_{n+1} is equivalent to the non-vanishing of L(1/2, {\pi}_n x {\pi}_{n+1}). More recently, Atsushi Ichino and Tamotsu Ikeda gave a refinement of this conjecture as well as a proof of the first few cases (n = 2,3). Their conjecture gives an explicit relationship between the aforementioned L-value and period integral. We make a similar conjecture for unitary groups, and prove the first few cases. The first case of the conjecture will be proved using a theorem of Waldspurger, while the second case will use the machinery of the {\Theta}-correspondence.