Lattices with and lattices without spectral gap

Bachir Bekka, Alexander Lubotzky

Published 2009-09-05, updated 2009-09-11Version 2

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, there are no almost invariant unit vectors in the subspace of functions in $L^2(G/H)$ with zero mean). 2) There exist locally compact simple groups $G$ and lattices $H$ for which $L^2(G/H)$ has no spectral gap. This answers in the negative a question asked by Margulis. In fact, $G$ can be taken to be the group of orientation preserving automorphisms of a $k$-regular tree for $k>2.$