Divisibility properties of higher rank lattices (Q2396787)

Let \({\mathbb G}\) be an algebraic group over \({\mathbb Q}\) and let \(S\) be a finite set of primes (containing \(\infty\) if \({\mathbb G}({\mathbb R})\) is not compact) such that \({\mathbb G}\) splits over \({\mathbb Q}_p\) for all \(p\in S\). Let \(\Gamma\) be a cocompact lattice in \(G=\prod_{p\in S}{\mathbb G}({\mathbb Q}_p)\). The paper under review considers a notion of divisibility in \(\Gamma\) (which for the multiplicative semigroup of integer quaternions yields the natural one) and shows that under certain assumptions on the dynamics of maximal diagonalizable group actions the set of elements not divisible by a given \(\alpha\in\Gamma\) is very small. More precisely, let \(A=\prod_{p\in S}A_p\) be the product of the \({\mathbb Q}_p\)-points of maximal \({\mathbb Q}_p\)-diagonalizable subgroups and assume that the Haar measure of \(\Gamma\backslash G\) is the only \(A\)-invariant ergodic measure with positive entropy for some element of \(A\). Then for every \(\alpha\in \Gamma\) and \(\epsilon>0\) there exists some \(w>0\) such that for sufficiently large \(R\) there are at most \(e^{\epsilon R}\) elements in \(\Gamma\) of diameter smaller \(R\) and width at least \(w\) (for certain notions of diameter and width) which are not divisible by \(\alpha\).