Expansion, random walks and sieving in \(SL_2({\mathbb{F}_p}[t])\) (Q501844)

The author considers random walks on \(\Gamma:=\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb F_p[t])\), for a prime \(p\geq 3\), and establishes escape rates from various proper subsets. The elementary law \(\mu_S\) of the random walk is assumed to be uniform on a finite symmetric subset \(S\subset\Gamma\), that generates a non-elementary subgroup of \(\Gamma\). A first result provides the following escape rate from a proper algebraic subvariety \(V\) of \(\Gamma^r:\mu_S^{(n)\otimes r}(V)\leq C^{-1}e^{-Cn}\), for arbitrary convolution power \(n\) and some positive constant \(C\). A second result extends a previous result established in characteristic 0, and asserts that \(\mu_S^{(n)}(\{g^2\mid g\in\Gamma\})\leq C^{-1}e^{-C\sqrt{n/\log n}}\). A third result asserts that this same second estimate holds for the subset of those \(g\in\Gamma\) which have a reducible characteristic polynomial. The strategy of the author is based on the construction of convenient so-called ``expanders'', that is to say, pairs \((G,\Sigma)\), where \(G\) is a finite group and \(\Sigma\) a symmetric subset of \(G\) such that the convolution by the uniform law on \(\Sigma\) yields an operator of norm \(<1\) in \(L^2_0(G)\). The construction of those expanders relies mainly on a method initiated by Bourgain and Gamburd, who use ``quasirandom'' groups \(G\). In this spirit, the author obtains families of expanders having the form \((\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb F_p[t]/(P)),S/(P))\), where \(S\) is as above, \(S/(P)\) denotes the canonical image of \(S\) in the quotient \(\mathbb F_p[t]/(P)\), and, for example, the polynomial \(P\in\mathbb F_p[t]\) is irreducible with degree having only large prime divisors.