Representations of reductive groups distinguished by symmetric subgroups

Abstract

Let $G$ be a complex reductive group and $H=G^θ$ be its fixed point subgroup under a Galois involution $θ$. We show that any $H$-distinguished representation $π$ (i.e $\mathrm{dim}_{\mathbb{C}}\left(π^{*}\right)^{H}\neq0$) satisfies: 1) $π^θ\simeq\tildeπ$, where $\tildeπ$ is the contragredient representation and $π^θ$ is the twist of $π$ under $θ$. 2) $\mathrm{dim}_{\mathbb{C}}\left(π^{*}\right)^{H}\leq\left|B\backslash G/H\right|$, where $B$ is a Borel subgroup of $G$. By proving Statement 1), we give a partial answer to a conjecture by Lapid.