Archimedean zeta integrals on GL _n × GL _m and SO_2n+1 × GL _m

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate archimedean zeta integrals for automorphic L-functions on GL _n × GL _n-1+ℓ and on SO_2n+1 × GL _n+ℓ , for ℓ = −1, 0, and 1. In each of these cases, the zeta integrals in question may be expressed as Mellin transforms of products of class one Whittaker functions. Here, we obtain explicit expressions for these Mellin transforms in terms of Gamma functions and Barnes integrals. When ℓ = 0 or ℓ = 1, the archimedean zeta integrals amount to integrals over the full torus. We show that, as has been predicted by Bump for such domains of integration, these zeta integrals are equal to the corresponding local L-factors—which are simple rational combinations of Gamma functions. (In the cases of GL _n × GL _n-1 and GL _n × GL _n this has, in large part, been shown previously by the second author of the present work, though the results here are more general in that they do not require the assumption of trivial central characters. Our techniques here are also quite different. New formulas for GL(n, R) Whittaker functions, obtained recently by the authors of this work, allow for substantially simplified computations). In the case ℓ = −1, we express our archimedean zeta integrals explicitly in terms of Gamma functions and certain Barnes-type integrals. These evaluations rely on new recursive formulas, derived herein, for GL(n, R) Whittaker functions. Finally, we indicate an approach to certain unramified calculations, on SO_2n+1 × GL _n and SO_2n+1 × GL _n+1, that parallels our method herein for the corresponding archimedean situation. While the unramified theory has already been treated using more direct methods, we hope that the connections evoked herein might facilitate future archimedean computations.