Shimura Varieties and the Selberg Trace Formula

Abstract

This paper is a report on work in progress rather than a description of theorems which have attained their final form. The results I shall describe are part of an attempt to continue to higher dimensions the study of the relation between the Hasse-Weil zeta-functions of Shimura varieties and the Euler products associated to automorphic forms, which was initiated by Eichler, and extensively developed by Shimura for the varieties of dimension one bearing his name. The method used has its origins in an idea of Sato, which was exploited by Ihara for the Shimura varieties associated to GL(2).