Dualizing involutions on the $n$-fold metaplectic cover of $\GL(2)$

Abstract

Let $F$ be a non-Archimedean local field of characteristic zero and $G=\GL(2,F)$. Let $n\ge 2$ be a positive integer and $\widetilde{G}=\widetilde{\GL}(2,F)$ be the $n$-fold metaplectic cover of $G$. Let $\pi$ be an irreducible smooth representation of $G$ and ${\pi }^{\vee }$ be the contragredient of $\pi$. Let $\tau$ be an involutive anti-automorphism of $G$ satisfying ${\pi }^{\tau }\simeq {\pi }^{\vee }$. In this case, we say that $\tau$ is a dualizing involution. A well known theorem of Gelfand and Kazhdan says that the standard involution $\tau$ on $G$ is a dualizing involution. In this paper, we show that any lift of the standard involution to $\tilde{G}$ is a dualizing involution if and only if $n=2$.