Selective orders in central simple algebras and isospectral families of arithmetic manifolds (Q2355969)

Let \(B\) be a central simple algebra of prime degree \(p\) over a field \(k\), not totally definite in case \(p=2\). Nonselective families of pairwise non-isomorphic maximal orders in \(B\) are studied in the paper. ``Nonselective'' means that the orders behave similar with respect to embeddability of \(\mathfrak{o}_k\)-orders of rank \(p\) into them. The main result, which gives an estimation of the cardinality of such non-selective families, generalizes previous results of Chevalley, Chinburg and Friedman, Arenas-Carmona, and others. In any case, the Hilbert class field of \(k\) plays a decisive rôle. Results of this type have been applied to isospectral families of closed Riemannian manifolds, first by \textit{J. W. Milnor} in [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 51, 542 (1964; Zbl 0124.31202)] who constructed a pair of non-isometric 16-dimensional flat tori with the same eigenvalues of their Laplacian. In [Arithmétique des algèbres de quaternions. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag (1980; Zbl 0422.12008)], \textit{M.-F. Vignéras} used the arithmetic of quaternion algebras to construct isospectral families of hyperbolic manifolds. The paper clarifies Vignéras' result and adds a new example.