Theta cycles and the Beilinson--Bloch--Kato conjectures

Abstract

We introduce `canonical' classes in the Selmer groups of certain Galois representations with a conjugate-symplectic symmetry. They are images of special cycles in unitary Shimura varieties, and defined uniquely up to a scalar. The construction is a slight refinement of one of Y. Liu, based on the conjectural modularity of Kudla's theta series of special cycles. For 2-dimensional representations, Theta cycles are (the Selmer images of) Heegner points. In general, they conjecturally exhibit an analogous strong relation with the Beilinson--Bloch--Kato conjectures in rank 1, for which we gather the available evidence.