The exact convergence rate in the ergodic theorem of Lubotzky-Phillips-Sarnak and a universal lower bound on discrepancies (Q2077236)

Summary: We establish a new result about the equidistribution of points on the two-dimensional round sphere. More precisely, we improve an upper bound of Lubotzky-Phillips-Sarnak on the discrepancies of some finite symmetric sets of isometries of the sphere defined with the help of Lipschitz quaternions. We show that a simple application of the spectral theorem leads to the best possible upper bound. Our proof relies on the deep result of Lubotzky-Phillips-Sarnak about spectral properties of some special free groups of isometries of the sphere. It leads to an upper bound on the discrepancy which matches \textit{exactly} a general lower bound suspected by \textit{A. Lubotzky} [Discrete groups, expanding graphs and invariant measures. With an appendix by Jonathan D. Rogawski. Reprint of the 1994 original. Basel: Birkhäuser (2010; Zbl 1183.22001)]. We confirm Lubotzky's guess by proving a universal lower bound on the discrepancies of actions on atomless probability spaces. We also mention some facts relating discrepancies to standard deviations, spectral gaps, amenability, Kazdhan pairs and \(\epsilon\)-good sets. In an appendix, we emphasize the relation between the computed discrepancies and the values of the Harish-Chandra function of a free group.