For a maximal torus in a quasi-split semi-simple simply-connected group over a local field of characteristic $0$, Langlands and Shelstad constructed a cohomological invariant called the splitting invariant, which is an important component of their endoscopic transfer factors. We study this invariant in the case of a split real group and prove a decomposition theorem which expresses this invariant for a general torus as a product of the corresponding invariants for simple tori. We also show how this reduction formula allows for the comparison of splitting invariants between different tori in the given real group.

Let $G$ be the $F$-rational points of the symplectic group $Sp_{2n}$, where $F$ is a non-Archimedean local field of characteristic $0$. Cogdell, Kim, Piatetski-Shapiro, and Shahidi constructed local Langlands functorial lifting from irreducible generic representations of $G$ to irreducible representations of $GL_{2n+1}(F)$. Jiang and Soudry constructed the descent map from irreducible supercuspidal representations of $GL_{2n+1}(F)$ to those of $G$, showing that the local Langlands functorial lifting from the irreducible supercuspidal generic representations is surjective. In this paper, based on above results, using the same descent method of studying $SO_{2n+1}$ as Jiang and Soudry, we will show the rest of local Langlands functorial lifting is also surjective, and for any local Langlands parameter $\phi \in \Phi(G)$, we construct a representation $\sigma$ such that $\phi$ and $\sigma$ have the same twisted local factors. As one application, we prove the $G$-case of a conjecture of Gross-Prasad and Rallis, that is, a local Langlands parameter $\phi \in \Phi(G)$ is generic, i.e., the representation attached to $\phi$ is generic, if and only if the adjoint $L$-function of $\phi$ is holomorphic at $s=1$. As another application, we prove for each Arthur parameter $\psi$, and the corresponding local Langlands parameter $\phi_{\psi}$, the representation attached to $\phi_{\psi}$ is generic if and only if $\phi_{\psi}$ is tempered.

Let $\mathcal{D}$ be a division algebra over a nonarchimedean local field. Given an irreducible representation $\pi$ of $\GL_2(\mathcal{D})$, we describe its restriction to the diagonal subgroup $\mathcal{D}^* \times \mathcal{D}^*$. The description is in terms of the structure of the twisted Jacquet module of the representation $\pi$. The proof involves Kirillov theory that we have developed earlier in joint work with Dipendra Prasad. The main result on restriction also shows that $\pi$ is $\mathcal{D}^* \times \mathcal{D}^*$-distinguished if and only if $\pi$ admits a Shalika model. We further prove that if $\mathcal{D}$ is a quaternion division algebra then the twisted Jacquet module is multiplicity-free by proving an appropriate theorem on invariant distributions; this then proves a multiplicity-one theorem on the restriction to $\mathcal{D}^* \times \mathcal{D}^*$ in the quaternionic case.

J.~Arthur put the trace formula in invariant form for all connected reductive groups and certain disconnected ones. However his work was written so as to apply to the general disconnected case, modulo two missing ingredients. This paper supplies one of those missing ingredients, namely an argument in Galois cohomology of a kind first used by D.~Kazhdan in the connected case.

The fundamental lemma in the theory of automorphic forms is proven for the (quasi-split) unitary group $U(3)$ in three variables associated with a quadratic extension of $p$-adic fields, and its endoscopic group $U(2)$, by means of a new, elementary technique. This lemma is a prerequisite for an application of the trace formula to classify the automorphic and admissible representations of $U(3)$ in terms of those of $U(2)$ and base change to $\GL(3)$. It compares the (unstable) orbital integral of the characteristic function of the standard maximal compact subgroup $K$ of $U(3)$ at a regular element (whose centralizer $T$ is a torus), with an analogous (stable) orbital integral on the endoscopic group $U(2)$. The technique is based on computing the sum over the double coset space $T\bs G/K$ which describes the integral, by means of an intermediate double coset space $H\bs G/K$ for a subgroup $H$ of $G=U(3)$ containing $T$. Such an argument originates from Weissauer's work on the symplectic group. The lemma is proven for both ramified and unramified regular elements, for which endoscopy occurs (the stable conjugacy class is not a single orbit).