Residually finite lattices in \(\widetilde{\mathrm{PU}(2,1)}\) and fundamental groups of smooth projective surfaces (Q2083515)

A group \(G\) is called residually-finite if for every element \(\gamma\in G\) different from the identity \(e_G\) there exists a homomorphism \(f :G\to H\) to a finite group \(H\) such that \(f(\gamma)\) is different from the identity \(e_H\). In the topology of algebraic varieties, a central question was to know if the fundamental group of projective manifolds were residually finite. A negative answer was given in [\textit{D. Toledo}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 77, 103--119 (1993; Zbl 0818.14009)]. Further examples were given by Catanese-Kollár in [Lect. Notes Math. 1515, 134--139 (1992; Zbl 0769.14001)] and Nori (unpublished). Inspired by the way these examples are constructed the following Question 1 in the reviewed paper is asked: let \(G=PU(n,1)\), \(\tilde{G}\) be its universal cover, \(\Gamma<G\) be a lattice, and \(\tilde{\Gamma}\) be the preimage of \(\Gamma\) in \(\tilde{G}\). Is \(\tilde{\Gamma}\) residually finite? An affirmative partial answer is given in Theorem 1.1 for the group \(PU(2,1)\) for certain lattices \(\Gamma\) that can be taken to be uniform or non-uniform. These seem to be the first examples of this type. The authors give two ways of producing these examples, one given by directly computing group presentations of some lattices given by Deligne-Mostow [\textit{P. Deligne} and \textit{G. D. Mostow}, Commensurabilities among lattices in \(\text{PU}(1,n)\). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1993; Zbl 0826.22011)] and the other generalizing the case when \(G=PU(1,1)\). For the latter, they prove the following Theorem (Corollary 5.4): Let \(X\) be an aspherical compact Kähler manifold with residually finite fundamental group for which the Kähler class \(\omega\in H^2(X)\) is in the image of the cup product \[ \tag{1} \bigwedge^2 H^1(X,\mathbb{Q}\to H^2(X,\mathbb{Q}). \] If \(Y\) is a principal \(U(1)\) bundle over \(X\) with Euler class a nonzero multiple of \(\omega\), then \(\pi_1(Y)\) is residually finite. For the proof they use the description of the kernel of (1) as given by Beauville in [\textit{A. Beauville}, Springer Proc. Math. Stat. 71, 41--45 (2014; Zbl 1312.14063)]. Under the hypotheses of the above theorem, this kernel can be used to find non-trivial quotients for the elements in the center of certain \(\tilde{\Gamma}\). In the second half of the paper, the authors show how residually finiteness can be used to construct algebraic surfaces that are not ball quotients but have fundamental group isomorphic to a cocompact lattice in \(PU(2,1)\). This result is weaker but more explicit than the constructions in [\textit{S. Troncoso} and \textit{G. Urzúa}, Savage surfaces. J. Eur. Math. Soc. (2022)]. The authors recently answered Question 1 in a more general situation in the paper [\textit{M. Stover} and \textit{D. Toledo}, Pure Appl. Math. Q. 18, No. 4, 1771--1797 (2022; Zbl 07608376)].