Related papers: Spectral gap for products and a strong normal subg…

We prove mean and pointwise ergodic theorems for general families of averages on a semisimple algebraic (or S-algebraic) group G, together with an explicit rate of convergence when the action has a spectral gap. Given any lattice in G, we…

Let $G$ be a simply connected, connected completely solvable Lie group with Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{p}+\mathfrak{m}.$ Next, let $\pi$ be an infinite-dimensional unitary irreducible representation of $G$ obtained by inducing a…

We give very precise bounds for the congruence subgroup growth of arithmetic groups. This allows us to determine the subgroup growth of irreducible lattices of semisimple Lie groups. In the most general case our results depend on the…

We prove several cases of Zimmer's conjecture for actions of higher-rank cocompact lattices on low dimensional manifolds. For example, if $\Gamma$ is a cocompact lattice in $\mathrm{Sl}(n, \mathbb R)$, $M$ is a compact manifold, and…

Let $G$ be a locally compact amenable group. We say that G has property (M) if every closed subgroup of finite covolume in G is cocompact. A classical theorem of Mostow ensures that connected solvable Lie groups have property (M). We prove…

We generalize a result of Sury and prove that uniform discreteness of cocompact lattices in higher rank semisimple Lie groups (first conjectured by Margulis) is equivalent to a weak form of Lehmer's conjecture. We include a short survey of…

Let $\Gamma$ be an irreducible lattice of $\Q$-rank $\geq 2$ in a semisimple Lie group of noncompact type. We prove that any action of $\Gamma$ on a $\CAT(0)$ cubical complex has a global fixed point.

Let $A$ be a commutative ring, and assume every non-trivial ideal of $A$ has finite-index. We show that if ${\rm{SL}}_n(A)$ has bounded elementary generation then every conjugation-invariant norm on it is either discrete or precompact. If…

We consider strong relative property $(T)$ for pairs $(\Ga, G)$ where $\Ga$ acts on $G$. If $N$ is a connected Lie group and $\Ga$ is a group of automorphisms of $N$, we choose a finite index subgroup $\Ga ^0$ of $\Ga$ and obtain that…

The special linear group G=SL_n(Z[x1,...,xk]) (n at least 3 and k finite) is called the universal lattice. Let n be at least 4, p be any real number in (1,\infty). The main result is the following: any finite index subgroup of G has the…

We study lattices in a product $G = G_1 \times \dots \times G_n$ of non-discrete, compactly generated, totally disconnected locally compact (tdlc) groups. We assume that each factor is quasi just-non-compact, meaning that $G_i$ is…

The following two results are shown. 1) Let $G$ be the $k$-rational points of a simple algebraic group over a local field $k$ and let $H$ be a lattice in $G.$ Then the regular representation of $G$ on $L^2(G/H)$ has a spectral gap (that is,…

Finite rank median spaces are a simultaneous generalisation of finite dimensional ${\rm CAT}(0)$ cube complexes and real trees. If $\Gamma$ is an irreducible lattice in a product of rank one simple Lie groups, we show that every action of…

Let $G$ be a connected algebraic semisimple real Lie group with finite center and no compact factors, and let $\Gamma$ be a Zariski dense discrete subgroup of $G$. We show that $\Gamma$ contains free, finitely generated subsemigroups whose…

We produce an example of an irreducible discrete subgroup in the product $SL(2,\R)\times SL(2,\R)$ which is not a lattice. This answers a question asked in [15].

It is well-known that a finitely generated group $\Gamma$ has Kazhdan's property (T) if and only if the Laplacian element $\Delta$ in ${\mathbb R}[\Gamma]$ has a spectral gap. In this paper, we prove that this phenomenon is witnessed in…

We prove an effective variant of the Kazhdan-Margulis theorem generalized to stationary actions of semisimple groups over local fields: the probability that the stabilizer of a random point admits a non-trivial intersection with a small…

We show that unitary representations of simply connected, semisimple algebraic groups over local fields of characteristic zero obey a spectral gap absorption principle: that is, that spectral gap is preserved under tensor products. We do…

We establish finiteness of low-dimensional actions of lattices in higher-rank semisimple Lie groups and establish Zimmer's conjecture for many such groups. This builds on previous work of the authors handling the case of actions by…

Kazhdan constants of discrete groups are hard to compute and the actual constants are known only for several classes of groups. By solving a semidefinite programming problem by a computer, we obtain a lower bound of the Kazhdan constant of…