Geometry of compactifications of locally symmetric spaces (Q1613951)

Let \(M\) be a complete Riemannian manifold. A ray \({\gamma}: \left[\left. 0, +{\infty}\right)\right. {\rightarrow}M\) is a half geodesic parameterized by distance, which is called distance minimizing or DM, if it is an isometric embedding of \(\left[\left.0, +{\infty}\right)\right.\) into \(M\). Two DM rays are equivalent if they remain at finite distance from each other as they go to infinity. The set of equivalence classes of DM rays in \(M\) is denoted as \(M(\infty)\). Under the assumptions: 1) If two DM rays from any compact subset \(\omega\) of \(M\) connect the same point at infinity, then they are equivalent; 2) There exists a compact subset \({\omega}_0{\subset}M\) such that any point in \(M\) can be reached by a ray starting from \({\omega}_0\). The authors prove that \(M(\infty)\) forms the ideal boundary of a canonical Hausdorff compactification \(m{\cup}M(\infty)\), called the geodesic compactification of \(M\). In particular, if \(M={\Gamma}/X\) be a locally symmetric space, where \(\Gamma\) is an arithmetic subgroup of the automorphism group \(G\) of \(X\), the geodesic compactification \({\Gamma}/X{\cup}{\Gamma}/X(\infty)\) exists and is Hausdorff. Then the authors discuss the relations of the geodesic compactification with other compactifications of locally symmetric spaces: a) Let \({\Delta}_Q(G)\) be the rational Tits building of \(G\), then \(\Gamma\) acts simplicially on it and the quotient \({\Gamma}/{\Delta}_Q(G)\) is a finite simplicial complex, called the Tits complex and denoted as \({\Delta}({\Gamma}/X)\). Using the reduction theory, they demonstrate that the geodesic boundary \(M(\infty)\) of \(M={\Gamma}/X\) is homeomorphic to the Tits complex \({\Delta}({\Gamma}/X)\). b) The Gromov compactification \(M^G\) of any complete Riemannian manifold \(M\) is constructed by embedding the manifold into a space of continuous functions. They show that the Gromov compactification \(M^G\) of a locally symmetric space \(M={\Gamma}/X\) is homeomorphic to the geodesic compactification \(M{\cup}M(\infty)\). c) Gromov constructed the tangent cone \(T_{\infty}M\) at infinity of a metric space \(M\), which describes the shape of the space \(M\) viewed from infinity. The authors prove that the tangent cone at infinity \(T_{\infty}({\Gamma}/X)\) is a cone over the geodesic boundary \({\Gamma}/X(\infty)\). Finally, the paper gives two applications of the theory of geodesic compactification to the harmonic analysis on locally symmetric spaces. The first is to classify positive functions with negative eigenvalues, which leads to the Martin compactification. The second concerns the parametrization of the Laplacian on \(L_2\).