The Siegel variance formula for quadratic forms

Abstract

We introduce a smooth variance sum associated to a pair of positive definite symmetric integral matrices $A_{m\times m}$ and $B_{n\times n}$, where $m\geq n$. By using the oscillator representation, we give a formula for this variance sum in terms of a smooth sum over the square of a functional evaluated on the $B$-th Fourier coefficients of the vector valued holomorphic Siegel modular forms which are Hecke eigenforms and obtained by the theta transfer from $O_{A_{m\times m}}$. By using the Ramanujan bound on the Fourier coefficients of the holomorphic cusp forms, we give a sharp upper bound on this variance when $n=1$. As applications, we prove a cutoff phenomenon for the probability that a unimodular lattice of dimension $m$ represents a given even number. This gives an optimal upper bound on the sphere packing density of almost all even unimodular lattices. Furthermore, we generalize the result of Bourgain, Rudnick and Sarnak~\cite{Bourgain}, and also give an optimal bound on the diophantine exponent of the $p$-integral points on any positive definite $d$-dimensional quadric, where $d\geq 3$. This improves the best known bounds due to Ghosh, Gorodnik and Nevo~\cite{GGN} into an optimal bound.