Betti numbers on a tower of coverings (Q1325157)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a cocompact lattice attached to a symmetric space \(G/K\) of non compact type, and let \(\{\Gamma_ j \}\) be a nested sequence of subgroups of \(\Gamma\) with \(\bigcap \Gamma_ j= \{1\}\). Then it is of interest to compare the growth of the Betti numbers \(\beta_ i (\Gamma_ j \backslash G/K)\) with the one of the volumes \(\text{vol} (\Gamma_ j \backslash G/K)\). There are results due to De George and Wallach by representation theoretical methods. By use of the geometric construction of cohomology classes as initiated by Millson and Raghunathan, Xue and Sarnak-Xue obtained results for cocompact arithmetic lattices in \(\text{SU} (2,1)\). More general, it is conjectured, that, for \(G= \text{SO} (n,1)\), \[ \beta_ i (\Gamma_ j \backslash G/K)\leq [\text{vol} (\Gamma_ j \backslash G/K) ]^{(2i/ n-1) +\varepsilon}, \] for \(0\leq i\leq (n-1) /2\). The main objective of this paper is to formulate this problem in a more geometrical setting by showing that such asymptotic behavior holds for negatively curved manifolds with sufficiently pinched sectional curvature or other conditions such as Kähler properties. Then effective estimates for specific spaces such as complex and real rank one symmetric spaces are given. The method can be applied to other symmetric spaces as well.