A proof of Selberg's orthogonality for automorphic L-functions

Let π and π′ be automorphic irreducible cuspidal representations of GL_m(Q_A) and GL_m′(Q_A), respectively. Assume that π and π′ are unitary and at least one of them is self-contragredient. In this article we will give an unconditional proof of an orthogonality for π and π′, weighted by the von Mangoldt function Λ(n) and 1−n/x. We then remove the weighting factor 1−n/x and prove the Selberg orthogonality conjecture for automorphic L-functions L(s,π) and L(s,π′), unconditionally for m≤4 and m′≤4, and under the Hypothesis H of Rudnick and Sarnak [20] in other cases. This proof of Selberg's orthogonality removes such an assumption in the computation of superposition distribution of normalized nontrivial zeros of distinct automorphic L-functions by Liu and Ye [12].