Counting maximal arithmetic subgroups. Appendix by Jordan Ellenberg and Akshay Venkatesh (Q2458988)

The author studies the growth rate of the number of maximal arithmetic subgroups of bounded covolumes in a semisimple Lie group \(H\). Let \(m^u_H(x)\) and \(m^{nu}_H(x)\) denote the number of conjugacy classes of maximal cocompact irreducible arithmetic subgroups and the number of conjugacy classes of maximal non-cocompact irreducible arithmetic subgroups in \(H\) of covolume less than \(x\), respectively. The following main theorem is proved. Theorem: (A) If \(H\) contains an irreducible cocompact arithmetic subgroup (or, equivalently, if \(H\) is isotopic), then there exist effectively computable positive constants \(A\) and \(B\) that depend only on the type of almost simple factors of \(H\) such that for sufficiently large \(x\) \[ x^A\leq m^u_H(x)\leq x^{B\beta(x)}, \] where \(\beta(x)\) is a function that we define for an arbitrary \(\varepsilon> 0\) as \(\beta(x)= C(\log x)^\varepsilon\), \(C= C(\varepsilon)\) being a constant that depends only on \(\varepsilon\). (B) If \(H\) contains a non-cocompact irreducible arithmetic subgroup, then there exist effectively computable positive constants \(A'\), which depend only on the type of almost simple factors of \(H\), and \(B'\), which depends on \(H\), such that for sufficiently large \(x\) \[ x^{A'}\leq m^{nu}_H(x)\leq x^{B'}. \] The methods of proof are based on the work of \textit{A. Borel} and \textit{G. Prasad} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 69, 119--171 (1989; Zbl 0707.11032) and ibid. 71, 173--177 (1990; Zbl 0712.11026)]. The author also uses some special number-theoretic results.