In a series of three earlier papers, we considered a family of restriction problems for classical groups (over local and global fields) and proposed precise answers to these problems using the local and global Langlands correspondence. These restriction problems were formulated in terms of a pair $W \subset V$ of orthogonal, Hermitian, symplectic, or skew-Hermitian spaces. In this paper, we consider a twisted variant of these conjectures in one particular case: that of a pair of skew-Hermitian spaces $W = V$.

This paper generalizes the Gan–Gross–Prasad (GGP) conjectures that were earlier formulated for tempered or more generally generic L-packets to Arthur packets, especially for the non-generic L-packets arising from Arthur parameters. The paper introduces the key notion of a relevant pair of Arthur parameters that governs the branching laws for ${{\rm GL}}_n$ and all classical groups over both local fields and global fields. It plays a role for all the branching problems studied in Gan et al. [Symplectic local root numbers, central critical L-values and restriction problems in the representation theory of classical groups. Sur les conjectures de Gross et Prasad. I, Astérisque 346 (2012), 1–109] including Bessel models and Fourier–Jacobi models.

In this paper, we consider the $\mathrm{SL} (2)$ analogue of two well-known theorems about period integrals of automorphic forms on $\mathrm{GL} (2)$: one due to Harder–Langlands–Rapoport about non-vanishing of period integrals on ${\mathrm{GL} }_{2} ({ \mathbb{A} }_{F} )$ of cuspidal automorphic representations on ${\mathrm{GL} }_{2} ({ \mathbb{A} }_{E} )$ where $E$ is a quadratic extension of a number field $F$, and the other due to Waldspurger involving toric periods of automorphic forms on ${\mathrm{GL} }_{2} ({ \mathbb{A} }_{F} )$. In both these cases, now involving $\mathrm{SL} (2)$, we analyze period integrals on global$L$-packets; we prove that under certain conditions, a global automorphic $L$-packet which at each place of a number field has a distinguished representation, contains globally distinguished representations, and further, an automorphic representation which is locally distinguished is globally distinguished.