Introductory Lectures on Automorphic Forms

Intended as an introductory guide, this work takes for its subject complex, analytic, automorphic forms and functions on (a domain equivalent to) a bounded domain in a finite-dimensional, complex, vector space, usually denoted Cⁿ).

Part I, essentially elementary, deals with complex analytic automorphic forms on a bounded domain; it presents H. Cartan's proof of the existence of the projective imbedding of the compact quotient of such a domain by a discrete group. Part II treats the construction and properties of automorphic forms with respect to an arithmetic group acting on a bounded symmetric domain; this part is highly technical, and based largely on relevant results in functional analysis due to Godement and Harish-Chandra. In Part III, Professor Baily extends the discussion to include some special topics, specifically, the arithmetic propertics of Eisenstein series and their connection with the arithmetic theory of quadratic forms.

Unlike classical works on the subject, this book deals with more than one variable, and it differs notably in its treatment of analysis on the group of automorphisms of the domain. It is concerned with the case of complex analytic automorphic forms because of their connection with algebraic geometry, and so is distinct from other modern treatises that deal with automorphic forms on a semi-simple Lie group.

Having had its inception as graduate- level lectures, the book assumes some knowledge of complex function theory and algebra, for the serious reader is expected to supply certain details for himself, especially in such related areas as functional analysis and algebraic groups.

Originally published in 1973.

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