Gross--Prasad periods for reducible representations

Abstract

We study GL_2(F)-invariant periods on representations of GL_2(A), where F is a nonarchimedean local field and A/F a product of field extensions of total degree 3. For irreducible representations, a theorem of Prasad shows that the space of such periods has dimension at most 1, and is non-zero when a certain epsilon-factor condition holds. We give an extension of this result to a certain class of reducible representations (of Whittaker type), extending results of Harris--Scholl when A is the split algebra F x F x F.