Functorial transfer between relative trace formulas in rank one

Abstract

According to the Langlands functoriality conjecture, broadened to the setting of spherical varieties (of which reductive groups are special cases), a map between L-groups of spherical varieties should give rise to a functorial transfer of their local and automorphic spectra. The "Beyond Endoscopy" proposal predicts that this transfer will be realized as a comparison between the (relative) trace formulas of these spaces. In this paper we establish the local transfer for the identity map between L-groups, for spherical affine homogeneous spaces X=H\G whose dual group is SL(2) or PGL(2) (with G and H split). More precisely, we construct a transfer operator between orbital integrals for the (X x X)/G-relative trace formula, and orbital integrals for the Kuznetsov formula of PGL(2) or SL(2). Besides the L-group, another invariant attached to X is a certain L-value, and the space of test measures for the Kuznetsov formula is enlarged, to accommodate the given L-value. The fundamental lemma for this transfer operator is proven in a forthcoming paper of Johnstone and Krishna. The transfer operator is given explicitly in terms of Fourier convolutions, making it suitable for a global comparison of trace formulas by the Poisson summation formula, hence for a uniform proof, in rank one, of the relations between periods of automorphic forms and special values of L-functions.