 Constant term of an automorphic form

The constant term of an automorphic form is its average along the periodic or unipotent direction associated with a cusp. In the basic period-one upper-half-plane setting,It is the zeroth coefficient of the Fourier series in $x$. Despite the name, it may depend on $y$. For a cusp width $h$, use the normalized average $h^{-1}{\int }_0^h$ after moving the chosen cusp to infinity.^[ref]

For a weight-zero Maass form with $\Delta =-y^2({\partial }_x^2+{\partial }_y^2)$ and $\Delta f=\lambda f$, periodicity makes the averaged $x$-derivative term vanish. ThusIf $\lambda =s(1-s)$ and $s\ne 1/2$, the solutions are $A{y}^s+B{y}^{1-s}$. At $s=1/2$, the repeated root gives $y^{1/2}(A+B\log y)$. A constant Fourier mode need not therefore be a constant function on the upper half-plane.

For the constant automorphic function $f=1$, the constant term is one and $\lambda =0$. A Maass cusp form instead has identically zero constant term at every cusp. The condition concerns the whole coefficient function, rather than merely its value at one height.