L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM

FOR COVERING GROUPS:

arXiv:1705.07559v1 [math.RT] 22 May 2017

A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

In this joint introduction to the present Asterisque volume, we shall give

a short discussion of the historical developments in the study of nonlinear
covering groups, touching on their structure theory, representation theory
and the theory of automorphic forms. This serves as a historical motivation
and sets the scene for the papers in this volume. Our discussion is necessarily
subjective and will undoubtedly leave out the contributions of many authors,
to whom we apologize in earnest.

1. Generalities

A locally compact group will mean a locally compact, Hausdorff, sec-

ond countable topological group. Let G be a locally compact group and A
a locally compact abelian group. We are interested in central extensions of
G by A. Let us first define this notion; our treatment in this section follows
the classic paper of Moore [Mo].

1.1. Definition: A central extension of G by A is a short exact sequence:

i p
1 −−−−→ A −−−−→ E −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1
such that

• E is a locally compact group;

• i is continuous and i(A) is a closed subgroup of the center of E;
• p is continuous and induces a topological isomorphism E/i(A) ∼ = G.
Equivalently, the third condition above can be replaced by the requirement
that p is continuous and open (cf. [Mi, p.96]). We will ultimately be inter-
ested in the case when A is finite.

1.2. Definition: Let E1 and E2 be two extensions of G by A. An equiva-

lence from E1 to E2 is a continuous homomorphism φ : E1 → E2 inducing

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 11F70, Secondary 22E50.

1
2 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

the identity maps on A and G:

p1
1 −−−−→ A −−−−→ E1 −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1
  

=y

φy

=y

p2
1 −−−−→ A −−−−→ E2 −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1.
By the open mapping theorem, an equivalence is necessarily a topological
isomorphism.
Let the set of equivalence classes of central extensions of G by A be
denoted by CExt(G, A). The set CExt(G, A) has a natural abelian group
structure, as we now explain.
Given two extensions E1 and E2 of G by A, we set
E = {(h1 , h2 ) ∈ E1 × E2 : p1 (h1 ) = p2 (h2 )}/δ(A)
where δ(a) = (a, a−1 ) is the skew diagonal embedding. This is the quotient
of the fiber product E1 ×G E2 by the skew diagonal embedding. Then E is
a central extension of G by A,
i p
1 −−−−→ A −−−−→ E −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1,
by defining i(a) = (a, 1) = (1, a) ∈ E and p(h1 , h2 ) = p1 (h1 ) = p2 (h2 ).
This E is the so-called Baer sum of E1 and E2 , written E1 ∔ E2 and this
operation makes CExt(G, A) into an abelian group. In other words, the
equivalence class of E depends only on the equivalence classes of E1 and E2 .
In the context of abstract groups, the abelian group CExt(G, A) was first
studied by Schur (1904) who introduced the notion of Schur multipliers. In
modern language, Schur had introduced the cohomology group H 2 (G, A).
We will however not go so far back in time in our historical discussion; a
modern survey of the central extensions of finite groups of Lie type can be
found in [Pr].

1.3. Categorical point of view. If we fix G and A as before, define

CExt(G, A) to be the category whose objects are central extensions of G
by A, and whose morphisms are equivalences. Since all equivalences are
isomorphisms, the category CExt(G, A) is a groupoid. The Baer sum is
functorial,
∔ : CExt(G, A) × CExt(G, A) → CExt(G, A),
making the category CExt(G, A) into a (strictly commutative) Picard cate-
gory [D3, Définition 1.4.2]
The neutral object in this category is the direct product G × A. Given an
object E ∈ CExt(G, A), a splitting of E is an equivalence (i.e., a morphism)
from E to G × A.
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 3

If j : H → G is a continuous homomorphism of locally compact groups,

and (E, i, p) ∈ CExt(G, A), then we may pull back the extension E to define
j ∗ E = {(h, e) ∈ H × E : j(h) = p(e)}.
Then j ∗ E ∈ CExt(H, A) by defining i′ : A → j ∗ E by i′ (a) = (1, i(a)) and
p′ (h, e) = p(e).
If f : A → B is a continuous homomorphism of locally compact abelian
groups, we may push out the extension (E, i, p) to define
f∗ E = (B × E)/h(f (a), i(a)−1 ) : a ∈ Ai.
Typically, f will be a closed map, and so it will not be necessary to take
the closure in the quotient above. Then f∗ E ∈ CExt(G, B) by defining
i′′ : B → f∗ E by i′′ (b) = (b, 1) and p′′ : f∗ E → G by p′′ (b, e) = p(e).
Pullback and pushout define additive functors of Picard categories,
f∗ : CExt(G, A) → CExt(G, B), f ∗ : CExt(G, A) → CExt(H, A).
For isomorphism classes, these define homomorphisms of abelian groups,
f∗ : CExt(G, A) → CExt(G, B), f ∗ : CExt(G, A) → CExt(H, A).

1.4. Cohomological interpretation. After the foundational work of Mackey

[Mac], Moore wrote a series of papers [Mo1-2, Mo3, Mo4] developing a coho-
mology theory for topological groups analogous to that for abstract groups.
We summarize some of their results.
Moore defines for each n ≥ 0 a cohomology group H n (G, A) using mea-
surable cochains. These groups are functors which are covariant in A and
contravariant in G. Note however that since the category of locally compact
abelian groups is not an abelian category, this cohomology theory is not a
derived functor cohomology theory. We describe the low degree cohomol-
ogy groups concretely. Note that we are only interested in the case where
A is trivial as a G-module. The 0-th cohomology group is H 0 (G, A) = A.
The first cohomology H 1 (G, A) is the group of continuous homomorphisms
G → A.
We describe H 2 (G, A) in more detail. Let Z 2 (G, A) be the group of
measurable normalized 2-cocycles z : G × G → A; this means that z(g, 1) =
z(1, g) = 1 for all g ∈ G, and
z(g1 g2 , g3 )z(g1 , g2 ) = z(g1 , g2 g3 )z(g2 , g2 ) for all g1 , g2 , g3 ∈ G.
Let C 1 (G, A)
be the group of normalized 1-cochains: measurable functions
from G to A such that f (1) = 1. If f ∈ C 1 (G, A) is a measurable function,
its coboundary ∂f ∈ Z 2 (G, A) is defined by
∂f (g1 , g2 ) = f (g2 ) · f (g1 g2 )−1 · f (g1 )−1 .

The resulting cohomology group H 2 (G, A) = Z 2 (G, A)/∂C 1 (G, A) is nat-

urally isomorphic to CExt(G, A).
4 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

This can be understood categorically as follows. Consider the (small,

strictly commutative Picard) category H2 (G, A), with objects set Z 2 (G, A),
and where a morphism z1 → z2 is defined to be an element c ∈ C 1 (G, A) such
that z2 = z1 + ∂c. The Picard category structure arises from the abelian
group structures on Z 2 (G, A) and C 1 (G, A). The isomorphism classes in
H2 (G, A) form the cohomology group H 2 (G, A).
Describe a functor from H2 (G, A) to CExt(G, A) as follows: for an ob-
ject z ∈ Z 2 (G, A), define an extension of G by A by E = G × A, with
multiplication
(g1 , a1 ) · (g2 , a2 ) = (g1 g2 , a1 a2 · z(g1 , g2 )),
and maps
i : a 7→ (1, a) ∈ E and p : (g, a) 7→ g ∈ G.
A theorem of Mackey [Mac, Théorème 2] gives E a natural topology
such that the above defines a locally compact group, and an extension of
G by A. If c : z1 → z2 is a morphism in H2 (G, A), i.e., z2 = z1 + ∂c,
then c defines an equivalence of central extensions E1 → E2 by the formula
f (g, a) = (g, c(g) · a). The work of Mackey and Moore implies that this gives
an equivalence of Picard categories, which we like to call “incarnation”:
Inc : H2 (G, A) → CExt(G, A).
A consequence is the isomorphism of abelian groups, H 2 (G, A) ∼
= CExt(G, A).
Surjectivity of this isomorphism is obtained as follows. Given a central
extension A ֒→ E ։ G, Mackey proves that one can find a measurable
section s : G → E (i.e. so that p ◦ s = id). This is the best one can hope
for: one cannot find a continuous section in general. From s, one defines a
measurable 2-cocycle by:
z(g1 , g2 ) = s(g1 g2 ) · s(g1 )−1 s(g2 )−1 .
The map (g, a) 7→ s(g) · i(a) gives an isomorphism from Inc(z) to E.

1.5. CExt(G, −) as a moduli functor. For another perspective, fix a lo-

cally compact group G. The assignment A 7→ CExt(G, A) gives a functor,
CExt(G, −) : LCA → Ab,
where LCA denotes the category of locally compact abelian groups and Ab
denotes the category of (abstract) abelian groups. Indeed, we have seen
above that CExt(G, A) has a natural abelian group structure and functo-
riality comes from pushout. Given f : A → B in LCA, pushout defines a
group homomorphism f∗ : CExt(G, A) → CExt(G, B).
Regarding CExt(G, −) as a functor LCA → Ab, it is natural to ask:
Question: Is the functor CExt(G, −) representable? If so, describe the
representing object π1 (G) of LCA explicitly.
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 5

As we shall see in the next section, this is the central motivating question
behind the initial study of central extensions, as developed by Steinberg
[S1], Moore [Mo], Matsumoto [Ma], Raghunathan-Prasad [PR1, PR2, PR3]
and others.
If π1 (G) exists, we call it the fundamental group of G, in which case
we have isomorphisms, functorial in A:
∼ CExt(G, A) ∼
H 2 (G, A) = = Hom(π1 (G), A).
Note that this functorial isomorphism can only be unique up to automor-
phisms of π1 (G). Also, observe that if A = S 1 (the unit circle), then
π1 (G) ∼
= the Pontryagin dual H 2 (G, S 1 )∨ of H 2 (G, S 1 ).

1.6. Universal extensions. Suppose that π1 (G) exists. Then since

CExt(G, π1 (G)) ∼
= Hom(π1 (G), π1 (G)),
there is an element G̃ of CExt(G, π1 (G)) corresponding to the identity au-
tomorphism of π1 (G). This extension
1 −−−−→ π1 (G) −−−−→ G̃ −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1
is called a universal central extension because it has the following uni-
versal property: given any central extension E of G by A, there exists a
unique continuous homomorphism φ : G̃ → E lying over the identity on G:
1 −−−−→ π1 (G) −−−−→ G̃ −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1
  

f |π1 (G) y

fy

=y

1 −−−−→ A −−−−→ E −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1.

The existence of such a universal central extension is equivalent to the rep-
resentability of CExt(G, −).

1.7. Condition for representability. Now let us consider the question

about existence of π1 (G). There is an obvious necessary condition for this
existence. Indeed, consider the trivial extension G × S 1 where S 1 is the unit
circle. If π1 (G) exists and G̃ is a universal central extension, then we have
a unique map of extensions
f : G̃ −→ G × S 1 .
However, if φ : G −→ S 1 is any continuous homomorphism, then the map
fφ : g̃ 7→ f (g̃) · (1, φ(p(g̃))
is another morphism of extensions. Thus the uniqueness of f implies that
Hom(G, S 1 ) = 0. In other words, if π1 (G) exists, then H 1 (G, S 1 ) = 0, or
equivalently, [G, G] is dense in G, in which case we say that G is topologi-
cally perfect.
6 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

One may ask if the necessary condition above is sufficient for the existence
of π1 (G)? Moore has given examples to show that it is not in general. We
highlight some positive results in this direction due to Moore [Mo]:
Proposition 1.1. In the following cases, π1 (G) exists:
(i) G is a discrete group which is perfect (equivalently, topologically per-
fect, since the topology is discrete);
(ii) G is topologically perfect and H 2 (G, S 1 ) is finite;
(iii) the component group G/G◦ of G is compact and G = [G, G] (i.e., G
is perfect).

Recall that when π1 (G) exists, π1 (G) ∼

= H 2 (G, S 1 )∨ .

1.8. Relative fundamental groups. One may also consider the problem
of classifying the central extensions of G which are split over a subgroup
H ⊂ G. Here, H need not be a closed subgroup; there are applications in
which H is even dense in G. Thus we are interested in the representability
of the functor LCA → Ab given by
A 7→ Ker(H 2 (G, A) −→ H 2 (H, A)).
One has the following result [Mo, Lemma 2.8]:
Proposition 1.2. Suppose that π1 (G) and π1 (H) both exist. The map i :
H −→ G induces i∗ : π1 (H) −→ π1 (G). Define
π1 (G, H) = π1 (G)/i∗ (π1 (H)).
Then there is an isomorphism, functorial in A:
∼ Hom(π1 (G, H), A).
Ker(H 2 (G, A) −→ H 2 (H, A)) =
In other words, the above functor is represented by π1 (G, H).

We call π1 (G, H) the fundamental group of G relative to H.

1.9. Restricted direct product. Given a countable collection (Gv , Kv ),

v ∈ S, where each Gv is a locally compact group and Kv is an open compact
subgroup of Gv , one may form the restricted direct product
′
Y
G= (Gv , Kv )
v
which is still a locally compact topological group.
The following proposition (based on [Mo, Theorem 12.1]) gives natural
conditions under which π1 (G) exists.
Proposition 1.3. Write iv : Kv ֒→ Gv for the inclusions. Assume that
• π1 (Gv ) exists for all v;
• π1 (Kv ) exists for almost all v;
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 7

• iv∗ (π1 (Kv )) is open in π1 (Gv ) for almost all v.

Then π1 (G) exists and is equal to the restricted direct product
′
Y
π1 (G) = (π1 (Gv ), iv∗ (π1 (Kv ))) .
v

This concludes our discussion on generalities about central extensions and

fundamental groups.

2. Abstract Chevalley Groups

In this section, we shall specialise to the case where G = G(k), with G

a connected reductive group over a field k. In particular, when G is split,
we give a summary of the beautiful work of Steinberg [S1, S2], Moore [Mo]
and Matsumoto [Ma] which describes the fundamental group of an abstract
Chevalley group.
To begin, let G be a split, simple and simply connected linear algebraic
group over an infinite field k. Set G = G(k) regarded as an abstract group
(with discrete topology). In this case, G is known to be perfect. Thus π1 (G)
exists by Proposition 1.1(i) and there is a universal central extension
1 −−−−→ π1 (G) −−−−→ EG −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1.

2.1. Steinberg’s construction of EG . In [S1], Steinberg gave an explicit

construction of the universal central extension EG using generators and re-
lations. Fix
T ⊂ B = T · U+ ⊂ G,
a split maximal torus contained in a Borel subgroup of G. This gives rise
to a root system Φ with a set ∆ of simple roots. For each α ∈ Φ, one has
∼
a root subgroup Uα ∼ = Ga . If an isomorphism xα : Uα − → Ga is chosen for
every α ∈ Φ, we define families of elements of G by
(
wα (t) = xα (t)x−α (−t−1 )xα (t),
hα (t) = wα (t)wα (1)−1
for t ∈ k× .
In [S2, Chapter 6], Steinberg demonstrates that there exist a family of
isomorphisms {xα : α ∈ Φ} such that G is generated by {xα (t) : α ∈ Φ, t ∈
k} modulo the relations
(A) xα (s + t) = xα (s)x
Q α (t).
(B) [xα (t), xβ (s)] = i,j xiα+jβ (nα,β,i,j ti sj ) where the product is taken
over (i, j) in lexicographic order and the nα,β,i,j ’s are certain integers
which we will not make precise here.
(B’) wα (t)xα (s)wα (t)−1 = x−α (−st−2 ).
8 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

(C) hα (st) = hα (s)hα (t).

The condition (B’) is not necessary if G 6= SL2 . The elements hα (t) for
α ∈ ∆ generate the group T , and the elements xα (t) for α ∈ Φ+ , t ∈ k,
generate the group U + . Similarly, {xα (t) : α ∈ Φ− , t ∈ k} generates the
opposite unipotent U − = U− (k).
Steinberg considered the group G̃ generated by elements x̃α (t), for α ∈ Φ,
modulo the (analogous) relations (A), (B) and (B’) above (ignoring (C)).
There is clearly a natural surjection
pG : G̃ −→ G
given by x̃α (t) 7→ xα (t).
From relations (A) and (B), it can be seen that xα (t) 7→ x̃α (t) extends to
a homomorphism σ ± : U ± ֒→ G̃ splitting pG , i.e., pG ◦ σ ± = Id.
Define elements w̃α (t) and h̃α (t) analagously to wα (t) and hα (t) above.
We let T̃ denote the subgroup of G̃ generated by the h̃α (t)’s. Steinberg
showed ([S2, Chapter 7, Theorem 10]):
Theorem 2.1. The group Ker(pG ) is central in G̃, and
1 → Ker(pG ) → G̃ → G → 1
is a universal central extension of G. In particular π1 (G) = Ker(pG ). Fur-
thermore, π1 (G) ⊂ T̃ .

2.2. Steinberg’s cocycles. In [Mo, p.194], Moore described a 2-cocycle

which represents the universal extension G̃, depending on choices of Weyl
representatives and an ordering of the simple roots. Let Ñ (respectively N )
denote the subgroup of G̃ (resp. G) generated by the w̃α (t)’s (resp. wα (t)).
Then
Ñ /T̃ ∼
= N/T = W
is the Weyl group of G. For each w ∈ W , we fix a representative w̃ ∈ Ñ and
denote its projection pG (w̃) ∈ N by ẇ.
Each element g ∈ G lies in a unique Bruhat cell BwB, and can be uniquely
represented as:
Y Y
g = uw · w · t · u, t = hα (tα ) ∈ T, u ∈ U + , uw ∈ Uw = Uα .
α∈∆ α>0
wα<0

We define a section s : G −→ G̃ by setting

s(g) = ũw · w̃ · h̃ · ũ
Q
where ũw = σ + (uw ) and ũ = σ + (u) and h̃ = α∈∆ h̃α (tα ). Here we must
fix an ordering of the simple roots, in order for this product to make sense.
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 9

This gives a 2-cocycle buniv : G × G −→ π1 (G), given by

buniv (g1 , g2 ) = s(g1 )s(g2 )s(g1 g2 )−1 .
We call this the universal Steinberg cocycle of G.
Given any central extension E ∈ CExt(G, A), there is a unique homo-
morphism f : G̃ → E lying over the identity map on G. Defining sE = f ◦ s
we have a section sE : G → E, and from this a cocycle
cE (g1 , g2 ) = f (buniv (g1 , g2 )) ∈ A
which incarnates E. We call cE the Steinberg cocycle of E.

2.3. Moore’s upper bound for π1 (G). After Steinberg’s construction of

the universal central extension by generators and relations, one can hope
for an explicit presentation of π1 (G). This question was taken up in [Mo].
His results are summarized in the following theorem (cf. [Mo, Lemma 8.1,
Theorem 8.1, Lemma 8.2 and Lemma 8.4]).
Theorem 2.2. (i) π1 (G) is generated by the elements buniv (hα (s), hα (t))
for α ∈ ∆ and s, t ∈ k× . In fact, if we fix a long root α0 , then π1 (G) is
generated by the elements buniv (hα0 (s), hα0 (t)) for s, t ∈ k× .
(ii) If c = f ◦buniv is a Steinberg cocycle valued in A (with f : π1 (G) → A),
then c is completely determined by its restriction to T × T . In fact, if α is
a long root and Tα the 1-dimensional torus generated by hα (t), then c is
completely determined by its restriction to Tα × Tα .
Corollary 2.3. Let α be a long root in Φ and let Gα ∼
= SL2 be the subgroup
generated by Uα and U−α . Then for any A, the natural map
H 2 (G, A) −→ H 2 (Gα , A)
is an injection. Equivalently, the natural map
π1 (Gα ) −→ π1 (G)
is surjective.

This corollary is the key tool in the analysis of extensions of a split group.
The theorem significantly reduces the number of generators needed for
π1 (G). Indeed, in view of the theorem, we fix a long root α and set
buniv,α (s, t) = buniv (hα (s), hα (t))
so that
buniv,α : k× × k× −→ π1 (G).
We know that π1 (G) is generated by buniv,α (s, t) for s, t ∈ k× . Moreover,
Moore showed that under a simple condition, the function buniv,α is bimul-
tiplicative:
10 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

Proposition 2.4. If there exists a root β such that hβ ∨ , αi = 1, then buniv,α

is bimultiplicative. This condition holds as long as G 6= Sp2n (n ≥ 1). If
G = Sp2n (e.g., if G = SL2 ), then buniv,α may not be bimultiplicative.

Now we want to know what are the relations satisfied by the buniv,α (s, t).
By working explicitly with the group SL2 , Moore was able to show (cf. [Mo,
Theorem 9.2]):
Theorem 2.5. If G = SL2 , then π1 (G) is the group generated by the
b(s, t) := buniv,α (s, t) subject to the relations:
(1) (normalized cocycle identities)
b(st, r)b(s, t) = b(s, tr)b(t, r), b(s, 1) = b(1, s) = 1.
(2) b(s, t) = b(t−1 , s).
(3) b(s, t) = b(s, −st).
(4) b(s, t) = b(s, (1 − s)t) if s 6= 1.
There is in fact some redundancy in these relations: under (1) and (4), (2)
and (3) are equivalent.

2.4. Definition: We call functions c : k× × k× −→ A satisfying the above

identities (1)-(4) A-valued Steinberg cocycles on k× . We denote the
set of such functions by St(k× , A). Since the universal cocycle buniv,α is bi-
multiplicative if G 6= Sp2n (k), we define a subgroup St◦ (k× , A) ⊂ St(k× , A)
consisting of those A-valued Steinberg cocycles which are bimultiplicative.
The elements of St◦ (k× , A) can be more simply described as those maps
c : k× × k× → A satisfying just two conditions:
(1’) (bimultiplicative) c(rs, t) = c(r, t)·c(s, t) and c(r, st) = c(r, s)·c(s, t).
(2’) c(s, 1 − s) = 1 if s =
6 1.
The relations (1’) and (2’) are important in algebraic K-theory. Namely,
they occur in the definition of the Milnor-Quillen K2 -group [Mi]. This
is the abelian group
k × ⊗Z k ×
K2 (k) = .
hx ⊗ (1 − x) : x 6= 1i

Thus St◦ (k× , A) = Hom(K2 (k), A). A corollary of the above discussions
and Pontryagin duality is:
Corollary 2.6. (i) For G 6= Sp2n (k) (resp. G = Sp2n (k)) and any A, there
is a natural inclusion
H 2 (G, A) ֒→ St◦ (k× , A) (resp. St(k× , A)).

(ii) If G = Sp2n (k), then π1 (G) is a quotient of the group generated by

buniv,α (s, t) subject to the relations (1) - (4) of Theorem 2.5.
(iii) If G 6= Sp2n (k), then π1 (G) is a quotient of the group K2 (k).
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 11

However, for a general Chevalley group G, Moore was unable to determine

whether the relations in the corollary are enough to define π1 (G), or whether
more relations are necessary.

2.5. Matsumoto’s determination of π1 (G). In [Ma], Matsumoto was

able to complete Moore’s results by showing:
Theorem 2.7. (ii) If G = Sp2n (k), then π1 (G) is isomorphic to the group
generated by buniv,α (s, t) subject to the relations (1) - (4) of Theorem 2.5.
Thus
H 2 (G, A) ∼
= St(k× , A).

(iii) If G 6= Sp2n (k), then π1 (G) is isomorphic to K2 (k). Thus,

H 2 (G, A) ∼
= St◦ (k× , A).

We remark that since we have an upper bound H 2 (G, A) ֒→ St(k× , A)

(or St◦ (k× , A)) from Moore, to show that this upper bound is attained is a
question of construction of central extensions. Namely, given an element of
f ∈ St(k× , A) or St◦ (k× , A), one needs to construct a central extension of
G by A whose associated Steinberg cocycle gives rise to f . This was what
Matsumoto did.

3. Groups over Local Fields

In this section, we consider the main problem highlighted in the first

section for groups over local fields. Let k be a local field and let G be a
(algebraically) simply-connected semisimple group over k. We set G = G(k),
so that G is a topological group and we are interested in its topological
central extensions.
If G is k-isotropic, it is known that G is topologically perfect, so that
there is a chance that π1 (G) exists. The main result we want to highlight
here is:
Theorem 3.1. Suppose that k is non-archimedean. Assume that G is ab-
solutely simple and k-isotropic. Then
H 2 (G, S 1 ) ∼
= µ(k)∨ ,
where µ(k) denotes the finite group of roots of unity contained in k. In
particular, π1 (G) exists and is equal to µ(k).

We make several remarks:

(1) The assumption that k is non-archimedean is for convenience: it allows
us to give a simple statement. Over R or C, the situation is completely
understood.
12 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

(2) The condition that G be absolutely simple is not crucial. If G is just

semisimple and simply-connected, then
Y
G∼ = Reski /k Gi
i

with Gi absolutely simple. Thus if each Gi is ki -isotropic, the theorem

implies that
Y
π1 (G) = µ(ki ).
i

(3) The theorem is the culmination of the work of Steinberg [S1], Moore [Mo],
Matsumoto [Ma], Deodhar [De], Prasad-Raghunathan [PR1, PR2, PR3],
Prasad-Rapinchuk [PR], G. Prasad [P] and Deligne [D2]. In the rest of the
section, we will describe some ideas in its proof.
(4) If G is anisotropic, absolutely simple, and simply-connected, then G =
SL1 (D) where D is a division algebra over k. In this case, one can still
demand to compute H 2 (G, S 1 ), even though G is not perfect. Such a com-
putation was done by Prasad-Rapinchuk. We will not discuss this here.

3.1. The case of split groups. When G is split, the theorem was proved
by the combined work of Moore and Matsumoto, which made decisive use
of the analysis of the abstract universal central extension given in the last
section. Let Gabs denote G(k) regarded as an abstract group (with dis-
crete topology). Then since any topological central extension is an abstract
extension, we have a natural map
H 2 (G, A) −→ H 2 (Gabs , Aabs ).
It turns out that this natural map is always an inclusion (for any topological
group G), so that there is a natural surjection
π1 (Gabs ) −→ π1 (G).
By Theorem 2.7, we know that
H 2 (Gabs , Aabs ) ∼
= St(k× , A) or St◦ (k× , A).
Thus it remains to determine which A-valued Steinberg cocycles correspond
to topological extensions. The following result is both simple (to absorb)
and natural:
Theorem 3.2. Let E ∈ CExt(Gabs , Aabs ). Then the following are equiva-
lent:
(i) The Steinberg cocycle cE : G × G −→ A of E is Borel measurable.
(ii) cE is continuous on T × T .
(iii) cE is continuous on Tα × Tα . (α a long root as before.)
(iv) E is a topological central extension.
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 13

Thus, to classify topological central extension, we are reduced to classi-

fying the set Stcont (k× , A) of continuous A-valued Steinberg cocycles. This
problem was solved by Moore (cf. [Mo, Chapter 2]). To describe his answer,
we first recall that there is a natural supply of elements of Stcont (k× , A)
arising from local class field theory. Namely, if we let µ = #µ(k), there is a
surjective µ-power residue symbol
(−, −) : k× × k× −→ µ(k).
Moore observes [Mo, Chapter II.(3)] that (−, −) is an element of St◦cont (k× , µ(k)).
Now given any A and a homomorphism f : µ(k) −→ A, we obtain an
element
f ◦ (−, −) ∈ St◦cont (k× , A) ⊂ Stcont (k× , A).
Thus we have a map
Hom(µ(k), A) −→ Stcont (k× , A).
The result of Moore [Mo, Theorem 3.1] is:
Theorem 3.3. The natural map above is bijective:
St◦cont (k× , A) = Stcont (k× , A) = Hom(µ(k), A).
In particular, each element of Stcont (k× , A) is bimultiplicative (recall that k
is non-archimedean here) and π1 (G) = µ(k).

3.2. Deodhar’s work for quasi-split groups. Using a similar generators-

relations approach based on a Chevalley-Steinberg system of épinglage, De-
odhar [De] was able to extend Moore’s results to the case when G is quasi-
split. In particular, he obtained an upper bound for π1 (G), namely that
µ(k) ։ π1 (G).
Once again, to establish that this is a bijection, one needs to construct
topological central extensions. Thankfully, in this case, one does not need
to give new constructions of central extensions. One can finesse the difficulty
by using an observation of Deligne (unpublished) to reduce to the case of
split groups.
Deligne’s observation makes use of one consequence of Matsumoto’s work
which is useful to know. Suppose we have an embedding
i : SL2 ֒→ G.
Let H be a maximal split torus of SL2 and T a maximal split torus of G
containing i(H). There is then an embedding of Z-modules:
X∗ (H) ֒→ X∗ (T).
Fix a Weyl group invariant inner product h−, −i on X∗ (T) ⊗ R such that
for any long root α (so that α∨ is short),
hα∨ , α∨ i = 1.
14 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

Now take any generator µ of X∗ (H) ∼

= Z and set
n(i, G) = hµ, µi ≥ 1.
Consider the induced map
i∗ : H 2 (G, A) −→ H 2 (SL2 , A).
Then the following lemma follows from [Mat, Lemma 5.4] and its proof.
Lemma 3.4. The image of i∗ is n(i, G) · H 2 (SL2 , A).

Now Deligne showed that for each quasi-split G, one can find
• a split group G′ containing G,
• an embedding i : SL2 ֒→ G
such that n(i, G′ ) = 1. Thus the composite
H 2 (G′ , A) −→ H 2 (G, A) −→ H 2 (SL2 , A)
is surjective. In particular, one can deduce that H 2 (G, A) ∼
= H 2 (SL2 , A) ∼
=
Hom(µ(k), A).

3.3. The work of Prasad-Raghunathan for general k-isotropic groups.

When G is k-isotropic but not quasi-split, then the above strategy is not
feasible because we do not have an explicit description of π1 (Gabs ) to begin
with. In this case, Prasad and Raghunathan [PR1, PR2] have to resort to
more geometric ideas (using the Bruhat-Tits building of G) in order to com-
pute H 2 (G, S 1 ). The details are too intricate to discuss here. In the end,
they showed that π1 (G) is a quotient of µ(k) with kernel at most of size 2.
This was then strengthened to an isomorphism using the results of [D2] and
[PR].

4. Adelic Groups

In this section, suppose that k is a global field and let A be its adele ring.
For each place v of k, let kv be the corresponding completion of k. Let G
be a simply-connected semisimple group over k. We set
Gk = G(k), GA = G(A), Gv = G(kv ).
If S is a finite set of places of F , one may also work with the S-adeles AS ;
then GAS is the restricted product of the Gv for v ∈ / S. There is a natural
diagonal map i : Gk ֒→ GAS , and one is interested in classifying topological
central extensions of GA which split over i(Gk ). These are classified by
M (S, G) = Ker(H 2 (GAS , S 1 ) −→ H 2 (Gk , S 1 )).
This group is called the S-metaplectic kernel. If S = ∅, we call it the
absolute metaplectic kernel and denote it simply by M (G). The com-
putation of M (S, G) was achieved after a long series of papers by Prasad-
Raghunathan [PR1, PR2, PR3] and Prasad-Rapinchuk [PR].
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 15

One reason for focusing on central extensions of GA which become split

over Gk is that one is eventually interested in the theory of automorphic
forms of coverings G̃A of GA : these are functions on i(Gk )\G̃A . Another
reason is that the computation of M (S, G) arises in the study of the con-
gruence subgroup problem.

4.1. Local-to-global. If G is k-isotropic, then π1 (Gv ) exists for all v by

Theorem 3.1. Moreover, it is known that if Kv is a hyperspecial maximal
compact subgroup of Gv , then Kv is perfect , so that π1 (Kv ) exists for
almost all v by Proposition 1.1(iii). Moreover, for almost all v, the natural
map
iv∗ : π1 (Kv ) −→ π1 (Gv )
is the zero map. Thus by Proposition 1.3, π1 (GAS ) exists and is equal to
M
π1 (GAS ) = π1 (Gv ).
v∈S
/

Further, the discrete group Gk is perfect so that π1 (Gk ) exists also. Thus,
using Proposition 1.2, we have the relative fundamental group
!
M
π1 (GAS , Gk ) = π1 (Gv ) /i∗ (π1 (Gk )).
v∈S
/
Given all these, one deduces that the functor
A 7→ M (S, G, A) = Ker(H 2 (GAS , A) −→ H 2 (Gk , A))
is represented by π1 (GAS , Gk ), so that
M (S, G) = Hom(π1 (GAS , Gk ), S 1 ).

Thus, if G is k-isotropic, the problem of computing M (S, G) is the same

as computing the relative fundamental group π1 (GAS , Gk ). Since we know
the local π1 (Gv )’s very explicitly, one approach to computing π1 (GAS , Gk ) is
to describe as explicitly as possible the closure of the image of π1 (Gk ). For
this, one would need to know π1 (Gk ) very explicitly. As we noted in Section
2, we have this explicit description when G is quasi-split, thanks to the work
of Steinberg, Moore, Matsumoto and Deodhar. When G is not quasi-split,
such an approach to computing π1 (GAS , Gk ) is not feasible. This is why for
non-quasi-split groups, Prasad-Raghunathan and Prasad-Rapinchuk have to
resort to completely different ideas to solve this problem.
In any case, the main global theorem of [PR] is:
Theorem 4.1. Let G be an absolutely simple, simply connected semisimple
group over k. If G is a special unitary group over a noncommutative division
algebra, assume a certain conjecture (U). Let S be a finite (possibly empty)
set of places of k. Then we have:
(i) M (S, G) ⊂ µ(k)∨ .
16 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

(ii) If S contains a non-archimedean place v where Gv is isotropic or

a real place where Gv is not topologically simply-connected, then
M (S, G) = 0.
(iii) If S = ∅, then M (S, G) = µ(k)∨ .

As for the local theorem, this theorem is the culmination of the work of
many people, culminating in the eventual work of Prasad-Rapinchuk [PR].

5. Brylinski-Deligne Theory

As our brief discussion of the historical development of the structure the-

ory of covering groups shows, much of the earlier work is focused on de-
termining the fundamental group or the universal central extension. This
almost immediately restricts one to the case when G is a simply-connected
linear algebraic group over a field k. The disadvantage of this is that it is a
common strategy in Lie theory to prove results by induction through Levi
subgroups of parabolic subgroups. However, the Levi subgroups are only
reductive groups and not semisimple. Thus the structure theory of (topo-
logical) central extensions obtained in previous sections does not apply to
the Levi subgroups of G.
When G is not simply-connected, for example if G is a special orthogonal
group, a typical way of obtaining central extensions of G = G(k) is to fix an
embedding G ֒→ SLr and then to pullback some known central extensions
of SLr . For example, one may embed GLr into SLr+1 as an r × r block, and
pullback a (topological) central extension of SLr+1 ; this gives an extension
which has been studied in some detail by Kazhdan and Patterson [KP1] and
is one member of a family of covers of GLr known as the Kazhdan-Patterson
covers.
While such constructions give examples of covering groups, with some
control on their structure through one’s knowledge of the relevant 2-cocycles
on SLr , they do not amount to a systematic theory or classification.
In their 2001 IHES paper [BD], Brylinski and Deligne approached the sub-
ject from a different angle. They returned to the very neat results obtained
in the split simply-connected case by Steinberg, Moore and Matsumoto,
where one has an extension of abstract groups
1 −−−−→ K2 (k) −−−−→ G̃ −−−−→ G = G(k) −−−−→ 1,
which is universal if G is not of type C. Their idea (from our perspective) is
to “remove the k” in the above short exact sequence. More precisely, regard-
ing K2 and G as sheaves of groups on the big Zariski site of Spec(k), they
consider the problem of understanding or classifying the central extensions
of group sheaves
1 −−−−→ K2 −−−−→ G̃ −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1.
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 17

Such a G̃ is also called a multiplicative K2 -torsor over G and the prob-

lem is to give a classification of the Picard category of such multiplicative
K2 -torsors with G fixed, i.e., to describe this category in simpler terms.
Brylinski-Deligne managed to give a very reasonable answer to this clas-
sification problem which depends functorially on G. Their results will be
summarised and described in the papers in this volume.
Suppose one has a multiplicative K2 -torsor G̃ over a local field k. Then
on taking k-points, one obtains a central extension of discrete groups
1 −−−−→ K2 (k) −−−−→ G̃(k) −−−−→ G(k) = G −−−−→ 1.
1 (k, K ) = 1. If
Here the sequence remains exact on the right because HZar 2
one pushes this sequence out via the norm residue symbol K2 (k) −→ µ(k),
then one obtains a topological central extension
1 −−−−→ µ(k) −−−−→ G̃ −−−−→ G −−−−→ 1.
Thus, multiplicative K2 -torsors over local fields give rise to topological cen-
tral extensions. Such topological central extensions are thus of “algebraic
origin”.
Now suppose k is a global field with ring of adeles A. Then the analog of
the above construction shows that one inherits a central extension
1 −−−−→ µ(k) −−−−→ G̃A −−−−→ GA −−−−→ 1
from a multiplicative K2 -torsor over k. A key feature of the Brylinski-
Deligne theory is that this central extension of GA comes equipped with a
canonical splitting Gk ֒→ G̃A ; this follows from reciprocity for norm residue
symbols. In other words, a multiplicative K2 -torsor over a global field gives
rise to a topological central extension of the adelic group GA together with
a splitting over Gk . This means that one is immediately in a position to
begin the study of automorphic forms of G̃A .

6. Representation Theory and Automorphic Forms

In this section, we shall give a brief discussion of several representative

works on the representation theory, harmonic analysis and the theory of
automorphic forms on covering groups.
Shortly after the middle of the last century, the classical theory of integer
weight modular forms on the upper half plane was recast in the framework
of automorphic representations on the group SL2 . On the other hand, it has
been known that fractional weights modular forms exist and play a signifi-
cant role in classical modular form theory. One early example is the Jacobi
theta function (a weight 1/2 modular form), or more generally the theta
function associated to an integer lattice of odd rank. It was then observed
that such modular forms should correspond to automorphic representations
18 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

on covering groups of SL2 (A). This gives a strong impetus for a systematic
study of covering groups of adelic groups.

6.1. Segal-Shale-Weil representation. One of the first systematic study

of representations of a covering group is the work of Weil [We1] on the
so-called Segal-Shale-Weil representations (also called the oscillator repre-
sentations) of the unique 2-fold cover of Sp2n (k) (where k is a local field).
This 2-fold cover is called the metaplectic group Mp2n (k). Weil and oth-
ers after him (such as Kubota [Ku1] and Rao [Ra]) gave a comprehensive
study of the 2-cocycles describing the metaplectic groups and its Weil rep-
resentations. Weil’s goal for developing this was to reformulate the theory
of theta functions in the representation theoretic framework and to express
previous results of Siegel (such as the Siegel mass formula and Siegel-Weil
formula) in this language [We2]. The Weil representations subsequently be-
came a key ingredient in Howe’s theory of dual pair correspondence (or theta
correspondence).

6.2. The work of Kubota and Patterson. In the late 1960’s, almost con-
currently as Moore and Matsumoto were doing their groundbreaking work,
Kubota initiated a systematic study of the coverings of SL2 or GL2 (beyond
the 2-fold cover), giving precise 2-cocycles for these covers [Ku1, Ku2]. He
was also interested in constructing analogs of Jacobi’s theta function for
these higher degree covers, using the residues of Eisenstein series. Patter-
son made a detailed study of the Fourier expansion of some of these theta
functions on higher degree covers, noting that they contain interesting arith-
metic information. In particular, for the 3-fold cover of GL2 , he showed in
[P1, P2] that the Fourier coefficients of the cubic theta function are cu-
bic Gauss sums. Using this connection, Heath-Brown and Patterson [HP]
showed the equidistribution of the angular components of cubic Gauss sums.
This suggests that one might find arithmetic applications by studying the
Fourier expansion of interesting automorphic forms on covering groups. We
will discuss some other of these arithmetic applications later on.
For higher degree covers, however, the structure of the Fourier coefficients
of the generalized theta functions becomes much more complicated. This
was subsequently explained by Deligne [D1] as a consequence of the fact
that Whittaker models are not unique for higher degree covers of SL2 .

6.3. Shimura’s correspondence. One of the key milestones in the theory

of automorphic forms on covering groups is Shimura’s 1973 Annals paper
[Sh], in which he developed a theory of Hecke operators for half integer
weight modular forms and proved a correspondence between half integer
weight modular forms and integer weight modular forms. Shimura proved
the correspondence which bears his name by using the converse theorem of
Weil. To do so, he introduced another innovation in his paper: a Rankin-
Selberg integral for the standard L-function of a half-integer weight modular
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 19

form. A slight variant of this Rankin-Selberg integral gives the symmetric

square L-function of an integer weight modular form, which was used by
Gelbart-Jacquet in their work on the symmetric square lifting from GL2 to
GL3 .
This influential paper of Shimura is the first to establish a lifting from
Hecke eigenforms of a covering group to those of a linear group. It led to
two independent lines of development, as we recall below. Both of these
arise from the attempt to formulate Shimura’s results in the setting of au-
tomorphic representations.

6.4. Kazhdan-Patterson covering and Flicker-Kazhdan lifting. The

first line of development from Shimura’s paper is the work [F] of Flicker,
who used the trace formula approach to prove the Shimura correspondence.
More precisely, Flicker compared the trace formula of a particular degree n
cover of GL2 constructed by Kubota with that of GL2 and proved a one-to-
one correspondence between cuspidal automorphic representaiotns of GL f2
th
and cuspidal representations of GL2 whose central character is an n power.
Thus, his work went beyond what Shimura did as he considered not just 2-
fold covers of GL2 . In this adelic treatment of the Shimura correspondence,
there is a local correspondence between genuine representations of the local
covering group and those of the linear group GL2 . This local correspondence
is expressed by a local character identity.
Following up on this work, Kazhdan-Patterson [KP1] considered degree
n covers of GLr which are obtained by pulling back from the degree n
cover of SLr+1 (with GLr embedded in SLr+1 in a standard way) and a
standard twisting operation. Such covers are now called Kazhdan-Patterson
covers and they generalise the Kubota covers of GL2 . In [KP1], Kazhdan
and Patterson were largely interested in extending the results of Kubota
noted above to the higher rank case of GLr ; in particular, they constructed
generalisations of theta functions as residues of Eisenstein series. Further,
their paper also laid the groundwork for an extension of Flicker’s results from
covers of GL2 to the Kazhdan-Patterson covers of GLr . This extension was
initiated in their subsequent paper [KP2] and pursued further in the paper
[FK] of Flicker-Kazhdan. In [FK], the authors used a simple trace formula to
prove a correspondence between cuspidal automorphic representations of the
Kazhdan-Patterson covers of GLr and cuspidal representations of GLr under
some simplifying local conditions (which allow the use of the simple trace
formula). As in the GL2 case, subordinate to this global correspondence is a
local correspondence of representations based on a local character identity.
Somewhat unfortunately, it has been noted by several people that there
are some errors in the papers [KP1] and [FK]; given the subtlety of the struc-
ture theory of covering groups, this is quite understandable and certainly
does not detract from the pioneering nature of these papers. The authors
of [FK] and [KP1] have however not provided an account and erratum for
20 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

these errors. This is quite unfortunate, as there is no doubt that most of the
results there must be true, at least if one imposes some conditions on the
degree of the cover. Some further work in this direction, which cleared up
some of the issues, were carried out by A. Kable [Ka], P. Mezo [Me1, Me2]
and by Banks-Levy-Sepanski [BLS] among others.

6.5. The work of Waldspurger. Another line of development originating

from Shimura’s 1973 paper is the work of Waldspurger which uses the tech-
nique of theta correspondence. In two papers [Wa1, Wa3], using the theta
correspondence for Mp2 × SO3 , Waldspurger obtained a complete descrip-
tion of the automorphic discrete spectrum of the metaplectic group Mp2 in
terms of that of PGL2 = SO3 . In particular, over local fields, Waldpsurger
obtained a classification of the genuine representations of Mp2 in the style
of the local Langlands correspondence. Moreover, his description of the au-
tomorphic discrete spectrum of Mp2 is in the style of the Arthur conjecture
[Ar], i.e. using local and global packets and having a global multiplicity
formula.
What is especially intriguing is that the global multiplicity formula in-
volves the global root number of a cuspidal representation of PGL2 . It
should be noted, however, that at a critical point of his work, Waldspurger
had needed to appeal to Flicker’s results [F] obtained by the trace formula
mentioned above. As a consequence, Waldspurger showed the existence
of nonvanishing of central L-value of quadratic twists of automorphic L-
functions of GL2 . Nowadays, however, one can avoid appealing to [F] , as
Bump, Friedberg and Hoffstein have independently proven the necessary
nonvanishing of central L-values. For a more detailed discussion of Wald-
spurger’s work in light of Bump-Friedberg-Hoffstein [BFH1, BFH2, FH], the
reader can look at [G1].
The work of Waldspurger has led to other significant arithmetic applica-
tions. For example, in [Wa2], he obtained a formula expressing the Fourier
coefficients of half integral weight modular forms in terms of the central criti-
cal L-value of its Shimura correspondent. This result was applied by Tunnell
[Tu] to provide a solution to the congruence number problem modulo the
Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.
It is natural to ask for an extension of Waldspurger’s work to Mp2n by
using the theta correspondence for Mp2n × SO2n+1 . This has come slowly
over the past 35 years. In the local setting, the local Shimura correspon-
dence, giving a classification of the genuine representations of Mp2n in terms
of the representations of SO2n+1 , was shown by Adams-Barbasch [AB] over
R in the 1990’s. The analogous result for p-adic fields was only shown fairly
recently by Gan-Savin [GS]. Over number fields, a conjectural extension
of Waldspurger’s results to Mp2n was given in [GGP] and [G2]. A recent
preprint of Gan-Ichino gives a classification of the part of the automorphic
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 21

discrete spectrum of Mp2n associated to tempered A-parameters, thus prov-

ing the conjecture formulated in [GGP]. The reason for this long lapse in
extending Waldspurger’s results to Mp2n is because that it requires recent
advances in the theory of theta correspondences as well as the recent results
of Arthur [Ar] on the automorphic discrete spectrum of classical groups. The
result of Waldspurger on Fourier coefficients of half-integral weight modular
form was extended to the setting of the Whittaker-Fourier coefficients of
cuspidal representations of Mp2n in a recent series of papers by Lapid-Mao
[LM1, LM2, LM3].

6.6. Fourier coefficients of metaplectic Eisenstein series and gener-

alized theta functions. The work of Kubota and Patterson on the Fourier
coefficients of generalized theta functions and metaplectic Eisenstein series
was continued by several mathematicians in the 1980’s and 1990’s, most
notably Bump, Friedberg, Hoffstein and their students or collaborators. An
early work is the paper [BH1] of Bump-Hoffstein which shows that cubic
L-functions occur in the Fourier expansion of Eisenstein series on a 3-fold
Kazhdan-Patterson cover of GL3 . Several conjectures were highlighted and
formulated in the paper [BH4] of Bump-Hoffstein and some further works
in this direction include [BH3, BBL, Su1, Su2]. There are complementary
local results [BFH3] on Whittaker functions of unramified genuine repre-
sentations, analogous to the Casselman-Shalika formula in the linear case.
These results on Fourier coefficients have found many stunning arithmetic
applications, concerning nonvanishing of central values of twists of automor-
phic L-functions, such as [BFH1, BFH2, BrFH].
These early works ultimately led Brubaker, Bump, Friedberg and Hoff-
stein to develop the theory of Weyl group multiple Dirichlet series in a
series of papers (see for example, [BBF, BBFH]), together with important
contributions from Chinta and Gunnells [CG1, CG2]. This theory of Weyl
group multiple Dirichlet series has found surprising connections with com-
binatorics, statistical physics and quantum groups. The local theory of the
Casselman-Shalika formula culminated in the recent papers of Chinta-Offen
and McNamara [CO, Mc1, Mc3].
Automorphic descent in the covering setting is also explored by Friedberg
and Ginzburg [FG2, FG3]. Some other recent work on the Fourier coeffi-
cients of metaplectic Eisenstein series is contained in [BrF, FG1, FZ], and
also the thesis work of Y.Q. Cai [C1, C2].

6.7. Automorphic L-functions. Another active area of research concerns

the theory of automorphic L-functions for metaplectic forms. To have a
definition of automorphic L-functions, one would need to have an under-
standing of unramified representations and a notion of the dual group of a
covering group. For Mp2n and the Kazhdan-Patterson covers of GLn (under
some conditions on the degree of covering), one has a natural candidate for
22 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

the dual group. For Mp2n the natural dual group is Sp2n (C) and for the
Kazhdan-Patterson covers, it is GLn (C), at least under some assumptions
on the degree of cover. For these examples of covering groups, one can define
Satake parameters for unramified representations and thus define the notion
of partial automorphic L-functions. To show the usual analytic properties
of these L-functions, one would try to find some Rankin-Selberg integrals
for these automorphic L-functions. Some early work in this direction in-
clude [BH2, BH3, BF]. On the other hand, the thesis work of D. Szpruch
[Sz1, Sz2] develops the Langlands-Shahidi theory for Mp2n . A more recent
preprint of Cai-Friedberg-Ginzburg-Kaplan [CFGK] gives a sketch of a gen-
eralisation of the doubling method of Piatetski-Shapiro-Rallis, which gives
a Rankin-Selberg integral for the standard L-function of covers of classical
groups.
Metaplectic forms have also proved useful in constructing Rankin-Selberg
integrals for automorphic L-functions of linear groups. The prime example is
the work of Bump-Ginzburg [BG] which extended Shimura’s original work
to give a Rankin-Selberg integral for the symmetric square L-function of
cuspidal representations of GLn , using an Eisenstein series on a double cover
of GLn . Based on their work, the case of twisted symmetric square L-
function is treated by Takeda [Ta].

6.8. Savin’s Hecke algebra correspondence. In another direction, Savin

studied and determined the structure of the Iwahori Hecke algebra for covers
G̃ of simply-connected groups G [Sa1, Sa2] and showed that they are iso-
morphic to the Iwahori Hecke algebra of an appropriate linear group. This
gives a bijection between the irreducible genuine representations of G̃ with
Iwahori-fixed vectors and those of the linear group. He did the same for
the spherical Hecke algebra, thus obtaining a correspondence of unramified
representations. These papers of Savin were the first to attempt a system-
atic development of the representation theory of general covering groups,
going beyond treating families of examples. It gives strong suggestions for
the dual groups of covers of simply-connected groups.

6.9. Character identitites. The Flicker-Kazhdan local correspondence sug-

gested that lifting of representations between covering and linear groups can
be formulated in terms of local character identities. Such local character
identities, in the context of Kazhdan-Patterson covers and other covering
groups such as Mp2n , were studied by J. Adams in a series of papers in
the 1990’s [A1, A2]. Most of Adams’ work is focused on coverings of real
groups. It culminates in a long paper of Adams and Herb [AH] which estab-
lishes such local character identities in a very general setting of coverings of
real groups.

6.10. Real groups. In Harish-Chandra’s work on the invariant harmonic

analysis of real Lie groups, he did not in fact limit himself to the case of linear
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 23

algebraic groups, but allowed finite central covers of these. Hence, Harish-
Chandra’s classification of discrete series representations and his Plancherel
theorem giving the decomposition of the regular representation L2 (G) were
shown for covers of real Lie groups. Likewise the technique of cohomological
induction (the theory of Zuckerman functors) was also developed in this
same setting.
Hence, one understands a lot more about the genuine representation the-
ory of real covering groups. Indeed, there is a classification of such genuine
representations called Vogan duality and some representative works in this
direction are those of Renard-Trapa [RT1, RT2] and Adams-Trapa [AT],
which led to a Kazhdan-Lusztig algorithm relating the irreducible charac-
ters of covering groups and those of standard modules. The recent paper
[ABPTV] relates the unitary duals of covering groups and those of an ap-
propriate linear group.

6.11. Invariant harmonic analysis, Eisenstein series and trace for-

mula. Our discussion above gives the impression that many results in the
representation theory or the theory of automorphic forms on covering groups
are based on the study of examples. While this is true to some extent, we
would now like to highlight some general results which are necessary ingre-
dients for a systematic theory.
We begin with invariant harmonic analysis as developed by Harish-Chandra.
As mentioned above, Harish-Chandra’s work on the invariant harmonic anal-
ysis of real Lie groups applies to finite covers of linear groups, such as his
classification of discrete series representations and his Plancherel theorem
giving the decomposition of the regular representation L2 (G). His analo-
gous results for p-adic groups were written up by Silberger [Si] and also
Waldspurger [Wa4], but only in the context of linear reductive groups. Re-
cently, many of these foundational results are extended to the covering case
(with largely the same proof) by W.-W. Li [L4] (character theory, orbital
integrals and Plancherel theorem). Some other results, such as the theory
of R-groups and the Howe’s finiteness conjecture for invariant distributions,
were extended to covering groups by C.H. Luo in his thesis work [Lu1].
For smooth representation theory, many standard results developed in [Ca],
such as the Langlands classification and the Casselman square-integrability
or temperedness criterion, were extended to general covering groups by Ban-
Jantzen [BJ1, BJ2]. It is worth noting that the theory of Bernstein center
also works in the same way as in the linear case, as noted by Deligne in his
rendition [Be] of the theory of Bernstein center.
Likewise, in the global setting, the Langlands theory of Eisenstein se-
ries was already developed in the setting of covering groups in Moeglin-
Waldspurger’s monograph [MW]. In a striking series of recent papers [L2,
L4, L5, L6], W.-W. Li has developed the theory of the Arthur-Selberg trace
24 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

formula for general covering groups, bringing it to the stage of the invariant
trace formula.

7. A Langlands program for Brylinski-Deligne extensions

After the historical account of the previous sections, it is natural to ask

if the framework of the Langlands program can be extended to the setting
of covering groups. The classical Langlands program is built upon the rich
and functorial structure theory of linear reductive groups. Such a structure
theory of covering groups has now been developed in the work of Brylinski-
Deligne and it is our belief that the Brylinski-Deligne theory serves as a
good starting point for a systematic extension of the Langlands program to
covering groups.

7.1. What constitutes a Langlands program? Before one begins, it

may be good to ask what exactly constitutes a Langlands program. For
this, one can do no better than to turn to the starting point of the classical
Langlands program, which is contained in the famous letter of Langlands
to Weil. The key new ideas introduced in this letter are the notions of
the dual group G∨ and the L-group L G of a connected reductive group G.
Langlands subsequently reworked in his monograph “Euler Products” [La1]
the theory of spherical functions and the Satake transform, reinterpreting
Satake’s results in the framework of the L-group. This allows him to classify
the unramified representations of a quasi-split p-adic group in terms of un-
ramified local Galois representations valued in the L-group, which immedi-
ately suggests (at least with hindsight) the local Langlands correspondence:
classifying all irreducible representations of G(k) by local Galois represen-
tations valued in L G. This unramified local Langlands correspondence also
allows him to introduce the notion of “automorphic L-functions attached to
a finite-dimensional representation of the L-group”.
Thus, a key ingredient for a Langlands program is undoubtedly the notion
of a dual group and an L-group, and a first test for any such candidate dual
group or L-group is whether it gives a natural formulation of the Satake
isomorphism, leading to a classification of unramified representations.
A second key realization of Langlands in the initial stage of the classi-
cal Langlands program is the difference between conjugacy and stable (or
geometric) conjugacy in a reductive group [La2] . More precisely, for a con-
nected reductive group G defined over a local field k, say, one may consider
a coarser equivalence relation than the usual notion of conjugacy in G(k).
This coarser equivalence relation is conjugacy by elements of G(ksep ), where
ksep is a separable closure of k. This led him to develop the theory of en-
doscopy, including the definition of endoscopic groups [LL, La3] and the
definition of transfer factors with Shelstad [LS].
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 25

To summarise, the two key ingredients for a Langlands program are, in

our views:
• a definition of dual groups and L-groups;
• a theory of stable conjugacy and endoscopy.
We note that both these ingredients in the classical Langlands program
require one to start with a reductive group G over k, and not just the
topological group G(k). For example, suppose that k′ /k is a separable finite
extension of local fields, G a reductive group over k′ and H := Resk′ /k G, so
that G(k′ ) = H(k) as topological groups, and there is no difference between
the representation theories of G(k′ ) and H(k). The dual groups and L-
groups of G and H are however different, even if they can both be used
to classify the irreducible representations of the same group. Similarly, the
notion of stable conjugacy only makes sense because one has the notion
of ksep -points of a reductive group G over k, with an inclusion G(k) ֒→
G(ksep ). This suggests that to have these two ingredients in the setting of
covering groups, one might need to work with covering groups of algebraic
origin, such as those provided by the Brylinski-Deligne theory.

7.2. Dual Groups. We now discuss some prior work on the two key in-
gredients of a Langlands program highlighted above. As we mentioned in
the previous section, people knew what the dual groups of some examples
of covering groups should be, such as for Mp2n , some Kazhdan-Patterson
covers and also covers of simply-connected groups. A systematic and gen-
eral theory was developed in the work of Finkelberg-Lysenko [FL] and Reich
[Re] in the context of the Geometric Langlands Program. This was followed
in the classical context by the work of McNamara [Mc2] and independently
Weissman [W3] who defined the modified dual root datum associated to a
Brylinski-Deligne cover, using the invariants associated to such a multiplica-
tive K2 -torsor by [BD].

7.3. Endoscopy. The theory of endoscopy for covering groups was initiated
by the work of Adams [A1] and Renard [R1, R2] in the context of Mp2n (R).
The thesis work of J. Schultz considered the case of Mp2 over p-adic fields.
The general case of Mp2n over any local field was completed in the thesis
work of W.-W. Li [L1], with the endoscopic groups of Mp2n being the groups
SO2a+1 × SO2b+1 , as (a, b) vary over ordered pairs of non-negative integers
such that a + b = n. In particular, Li established the transfer of orbital
integrals from Mp2n to its endoscopic groups, the fundamental lemma for the
unit element of the spherical Hecke algebra and the weighted fundamental
lemma [L3]. In his thesis work, C.H. Luo has shown the fundamental lemma
for the whole spherical Hecke algebra, as well as established the expected
local character identities for the local L-packets of Mp2n defined by the local
Shimura correspondence of [GS]. Based on his theory of endoscopy, Li has
begun the stabilisation of the invariant trace formula for Mp2n . It remains
26 WEE TECK GAN, FAN GAO AND MARTIN H. WEISSMAN

to see whether the case of Mp2n is an anomaly or is an example of a theory

of endoscopy which encompasses a large class of covering groups, such as
the Brylinski-Deligne covers.

7.4. This volume. This brings us to the current volume.

One of us (M.H.W.) has been thinking about using the Brylinski-Deligne
theory as a starting point for the Langlands program for covering groups
for some time. The paper [W1] is an initial attempt to bring the Brylinski-
Deligne structure theory to bear on the genuine representation theory of cov-
ering tori, whereas the paper [W2] describes the interaction of the Brylinski-
Deligne structure theory with the Bruhat-Tits theory of open compact sub-
groups, answering a question raised at the end of [BD], while the paper [HW]
applies this to the depth zero genuine representation theory of Brylinski-
Deligne covers. The paper [W3] gives a definition of the dual group and
L-group of a Brylinski-Deligne cover of a split group, using the language of
Hopf algebras. This turns out to be overly complicated, making the theory
hard to use. Moreover, with hindsight, the candidate L-group there is not
always the right one, as it does not make use of all the Brylinski-Deligne
invariants. These initial attempts and ideas were communicated in a se-
ries of letters between M.H.W. and Deligne over the period 2007-2014 and
Deligne’s ideas and comments have been extremely helpful in every stage of
the development. The interested reader can find this series of letters, which
documents the evolution of some of the ideas discussed in this volume, in
[W4].
These efforts culminate in the first paper of this volume (by M.H.W.)
which defines the L-group of a Brylinski-Deligne cover of a quasi-split group
using the language of étale gerbes, and tests this L-group for the purpose of
representation theory, including the Satake isomorphism and classification
of unramified representations as well as the classification of discrete series for
covers of real groups. The second paper (by W.T.G. and F.G.) specialises
to the case of covers of split groups and introduces another construction of
the L-group also due to M.H.W, which is more down-to-earth, as it avoids
the language of étale gerbes. There is some overlap between the second
paper and the first, as the second paper also conducts the necessary tests
for the legitimacy of the L-group, namely the Satake isomorphism and the
representation theory of covers of split tori. This second paper then goes
on to explore some cases of Langlands functoriality such as base change. As
a consequence of these two papers, one can now define partial automorphic
L-functions for automorphic representations of a Brylinski-Deligne cover. In
a followup [Ga] to this work, one of us (F.G.) has extended the results of
Langlands’ “Euler Products” [La1] to the covering setting, using the con-
stant terms of Eisenstein series to show the meromorphic continuation of
some of these automorphic L-functions (those of Langlands-Shahidi type).
Finally, the third paper (by M.H.W.) of this volume shows that the two
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 27

notions of L-groups used in the first two papers are in fact the same (for
covers of split groups). Since the papers in the volume come with their
own extended introductions, we shall refrain from giving a more detailed
introduction here.
Finally, we note that this volume is simply a beginning, and we have
only discussed one of the two key ingredients of a Langlands program. We
have not addressed the issue of stable conjugacy and endoscopy, except for
a brief speculative section in the second paper. We hope that this volume
will stimulate further research in this area, leading one day to a fulfilment
of the hope expressed by Deligne in his letter [W4] to M.H.W. (Dated Dec.
14, 2007):
“For me, the aim is to understand “metaplectic” forms on semi-simple
groups, the hope being that they are not “new” object, but rather correspond
to usual automorphic forms on some other groups, on which they give new
information. I would like to have precise conjectures on the hoped for cor-
respondence, and I view my paper with Brylinski as setting a landscape in
which conjectures should fit. ”

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Wee Teck Gan: Department of Mathematics, National University of Sin-

gapore, 10 Lower Kent Ridge Road Singapore 119076
E-mail address: [email protected]

Fan Gao: Department of Mathematics, Purdue University, 150 N. Univer-

sity Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907
E-mail address: [email protected]
 L-GROUPS AND THE LANGLANDS PROGRAM FOR COVERING GROUPS 33

Martin Weissman: Department of Mathematics, University of California,

Santa Cruz, CA 95064, and Yale-NUS College, 6 College Ave East, # B1-01,
Singapore 138614
E-mail address: [email protected]