Geometric Waldspurger periods

Abstract

This paper is a step towards a version of the theta-lifting (or Howe correspondence) in the framework of the geometric Langlands program. We consider the (unramified) dual reductive pair H=GO_{2m}, G=GSp_{2n} over a smooth projective curve X (our H is assumed to be split on an etale two-sheeted covering Y of X). Let Bun_G and Bun_H be the stack of G-torsors and H-torsors on X. We define and study functors F_G and F_H between the derived categories D(Bun_G) and D(Bun_H) that are analogs of the classical theta-lifting operators. One of the main results is the geometric Langlands functoriality for the dual pair (H=GO_2, G=GL_2), where GO_2 is the direct image of the multiplicative group from a nontrivial etale covering Y to X. The functor F_G from D(Bun_H) to D(Bun_G) commutes with Hecke operators with respect to the corresponding map of Langlands L-groups G^L\to H^L. As an application, we calculate Waldspurger periods of cuspidal automorphic sheaves on Bun_{GL_2} and Bessel periods of theta-lifts from Bun_{GO_4} to Bun_{GSp_4}. Based on these calculations, we give three conjectural constructions of certain automorphic sheaves on Bun_{GSp_4} (one of them makes sense for D-modules only).