Vertical Distribution Relations For Special Cycles on Unitary Shimura Varieties

Abstract

We consider cycles on a 3-dimensional Shimura varieties attached to a unitary group, defined over extensions of a CM field $E$, which appear in the context of the conjectures of Gan, Gross, and Prasad \cite{gan-gross-prasad}. We establish a vertical distribution relation for these cycles over an anticyclotomic extension of $E$, complementing the horizontal distribution relation of \cite{jetchev:unitary}, and use this to define a family of norm-compatible cycles over these fields, thus obtaining a universal norm construction similar to the Heegner $\Lambda$-module constructed from Heegner points.