Slopes in eigenvarieties for definite unitary groups

We generalize bounds of Liu–Wan–Xiao for slopes in eigencurves for definite unitary groups of rank $2$ to slopes in eigenvarieties for definite unitary groups of any rank. We show that for a definite unitary group of rank $n$, the Newton polygon of the characteristic power series of the $U_p$ Hecke operator has exact growth rate $x^{1+2/{n(n-1)}}$, times a constant proportional to the distance of the weight from the boundary of weight space. The proof goes through the classification of forms associated to principal series representations. We also give a consequence for the geometry of these eigenvarieties over the boundary of weight space.