Counting isospectral manifolds

Given a simple Lie group $H$ of real rank at least $2$ we show that the maximum cardinality of a set of isospectral non-isometric $H$-locally symmetric spaces of volume at most $x$ grows at least as fast as $x^{c\log x/ (\log\log x)^2}$ where $c = c(H)$ is a positive constant. In contrast with the real rank $1$ case, this bound comes surprisingly close to the total number of such spaces as estimated in a previous work of Belolipetsky and Lubotzky [BL]. Our proof uses Sunada's method, results of [BL], and some deep results from number theory. We also discuss an open number-theoretical problem which would imply an even faster growth estimate.