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ThetheoryofGaloisrepresentationsattachedtoautomorphicrepresenta- tions of GL(n) is largely based on the study of the cohomology of Shimura varieties of PEL type attached to unitary similitude groups. The need to keep track of the similitude factor complicates notation while making no difference to the final result. It is more natural to work with Shimura varieties attached to the unitary groups themselves, which do not introduce these unnecessary complications; however, these are of abelian type, not of PEL type, and the Galois representations on their cohomology differ slightly from those obtained from the more familiar Shimura varieties. Results on the critical values of the L-functions of these Galois representations have been established by studying the PEL type Shimura varieties. It is not immediately obvious that the automorphic periods for these varieties are the same as for those attached to unitary groups, which appear more naturally in applications of relative trace formulas, such as the refined Gan-Gross-Prasad conjecture (conjecture of Ichino-Ikeda and N. Harris). The present article reconsiders these critical values, using the Shimura varieties attached to unitary groups, and obtains results that can be used more simply in applications. 

The classical theta correspondence establishes a relationship between automorphic representations on special orthogonal groups and automorphic representations on symplectic groups or their double covers. This correspondence is achieved by using as integral kernel a theta series on the metaplectic double cover of a symplectic group that is constructed from the Weil representation. There is also an analogous local correspondence. In this work we present an extension of the classical theta correspondence to higher degree metaplectic covers of symplectic and special orthogonal groups. The key issue here is that for higher degree covers there is no analogue of the Weil representation, and additional ingredients are needed. Our work reflects a broader paradigm: constructions in automorphic forms that work for algebraic groups or their double covers should often extend to higher degree metaplectic covers.