On volumes of quaternionic hyperbolic \(n\)-orbifolds (Q2417646)

Siegel posed the problem of identifying the minimal co-volume lattices of isometries of real hyperbolic \(n\)-space. A qualitative solution to Siegel's problem was obtained (for more general connected Lie groups \(G\) rather than just \(\mathrm{SO}(n,1)^0\)) by Kazhdan and Margulis when they showed that the infimum of the co-volume of lattices in \(G\) is non-zero. H.C. Wang found a quantitative version of Kazhdan-Margulis's theorem when he found an explicit lower bound for the radius of a ball embedded in a Zassenhaus neighbourhood of a Lie group \(G\). This geometric method of Wang was used by \textit{I. Adeboye} and \textit{G. Wei} along with a bound for the sectional curvature of \(\mathrm{PSO}(n,1)^0\) to obtain explicit lower bounds (see [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 12, No. 1, 215--233 (2012; Zbl 1255.57015)]) for the co-volumes of orbifolds in real hyperbolic \(n\)-space. Subsequently, they also obtained lower bounds for the complex hyperbolic orbifolds (see [Mich. Math. J. 63, No. 2, 355--369 (2014; Zbl 1368.57011)]). In the paper under review, the authors obtain analogous lower bounds in the case of quaternionic hyperbolic orbifolds \(H_{\mathbb{H}}^n/\Gamma\) -- that is, those corresponding to covolumes of lattices in \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)\). In order to deal efficiently with the complications arising from the noncommutativity of quaternions \(\mathbb{H}\), the authors represent the Lie algebra of \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)\) as a real vector space and find the corresponding complex structure on it. Based on this complex structure, the authors construct a Riemannian submersion from the \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)/\Gamma\) to the quotient \(H_{\mathbb{H}}^n/\Gamma\). They then use Wang's result mentioned above. At the end of the paper, the authors also show that their estimates of sectional curvatures on \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)\) lead to slight improvements in the real and complex cases by re-estimating sectional curvatures of \(\mathrm{SO}(n,1)\) and \(\mathrm{SU}(n,1)\).