A degenerate Whittaker criterion for $\mathrm GL_{2n}$

Abstract

Let $F$ be a non-Archimedean local field. Let $N$ be the unipotent radical of the standard parabolic subgroup of $\mathrm GL_{2n}(F)$ of type $(n,n)$ with fixed nondegenerate additive character $ψ$. For an irreducible admissible representation $π$ of $\mathrm GL_{2n}(F)$, a theorem due to Gomez--Gourevitch--Sahi on generalized Whittaker models gives a criterion for the vanishing of the twisted Jacquet module $π_{N,ψ}$ in terms of the wave-front set. We translate this orbit-theoretic answer into Langlands--Zelevinsky data: if $π=L(\mathfrak m)$, then $π_{N,ψ}=0$ if and only if the Zelevinsky dual $\mathfrak m^{\mathrm t}$ contains a segment of length at least $n+1$. We do this in response to a conjecture proposed by D$.$Prasad about the vanishing of $π_{N,ψ}$ in terms of the adjoint $L$-function $L(s,π\timesπ^\vee)$. We prove that, for every irreducible representation $π$, vanishing of $π_{N,ψ}$ implies the pole inequalities predicted by D$.$Prasad. However, we show that the converse implication is false by an explicit counterexample for $\mathrm GL_4(F)$. For the generalized Steinberg constituents $v_{P_β}^G$ of the principal series containing the trivial representation, we make an explicit calculation of when $π_{N,ψ}$ is zero. In particular, for $\mathrm GL_6(F)$, exactly three of the $32$ constituents of such a principal series violate the converse direction of the conjecture proposed by D$.$Prasad.