Quasi-arithmeticity of lattices in \(\mathrm{PO}(n,1)\) (Q2634848)

Generalizing an ``inbreeding'' construction due to \textit{I. Agol} [``Systoles of hyperbolic 4-manifolds'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:math/0612290}] and a lemma of \textit{G. A. Margulis} [Discrete subgroups of semisimple Lie groups. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1991; Zbl 0732.22008)] and Vinberg, the present author and \textit{M. V. Belolipetsky} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 11, No. 3, 1455--1469 (2011; Zbl 1248.22004)] had obtained for any \(n \geq 2\) and any \(\epsilon > 0\), a compact hyperbolic manifold of dimension \(n\) which contains a closed geodesic of length \(< \epsilon\). For small enough \(\epsilon\), these give rise to non-arithmetic lattices in \(\mathrm{PO}(n,1)\). This construction is different from the construction due to \textit{M. Gromov} and \textit{I. I. Piatetski-Shapiro} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 66, 93--103 (1988; Zbl 0649.22007)]. The results of the paper under review imply, in particular, that there are infinitely many commensurability classes of nonarithmetic lattices which are not commensurable to the nonarithmetic lattices constructed by Gromov and Piatetskii-Shapiro [loc. cit.]. Vinberg had defined the notion of a ``quasi-arithmetic'' lattice \(\Gamma\) in a connected, semisimple, centerless, real Lie group \(G\) without compact factors. This is a lattice \(\Gamma\) in \(G\) such that for some \(\mathbb{Q}\)-algebraic group \(\mathcal{G}\) admitting a surjection \(\phi\) from \(\mathcal{G}(\mathbb{R})^0\) to \(G\) with compact kernel, a subgroup of finite index in \(\Gamma\) is contained in \(\phi(\mathcal{G}(\mathbb{Q}))\). A quasi-arithmetic lattice as above is arithmetic if it is commensurable with \(\phi(\mathcal{G}(\mathbb{Z}))\). The author revisits the earlier construction by him and Belolipetsky [loc. cit.] and proves that it produces infinitely many commensurability classes of non-arithmetic lattices in \(\mathrm{PO}(n,1)\) which are quasi-arithmetic. He also shows that the nonarithmetic lattices produced by Gromov and Piatetskii-Shapiro [loc. cit.] are not quasi-arithmetic. In particular, they are not commensurable with the nonarithmetic lattices constructed by the author with Belolipetsky [loc. cit.].