This volume is the proceedings of the conference on Automorphic Representations, L-functions and Applications: Progress and Prospects, held at the Department of Mathematics of The Ohio State University, March 27–30, 2003, in honor of the 60th birthday of Steve Rallis.

The theory of automorphic representations, automorphic L-functions and their applications to arithmetic continues to be an area of vigorous and fruitful research. The contributed papers in this volume represent many of the most recent developments and directions, including



Rankin–Selberg L-functions (Bump, Ginzburg–Jiang–Rallis, Lapid–Rallis)
the relative trace formula (Jacquet, Mao–Rallis)
automorphic representations (Gan–Gurevich, Ginzburg–Rallis–Soudry)
representation theory of p-adic groups (Baruch, Kudla–Rallis, Mœglin, Cogdell–Piatetski-Shapiro–Shahidi)
p-adic methods (Harris–Li–Skinner, Vigneras), and
arithmetic applications (Chinta–Friedberg–Hoffstein).

The survey articles by Bump, on the Rankin–Selberg method, and by Jacquet, on the relative trace formula, should be particularly useful as an introduction to the key ideas about these important topics.

This volume should be of interest both to researchers and students in the area of automorphic representations, as well as to mathematicians in other areas interested in having an overview of current developments in this important field.