Property \((T)\) for noncommutative universal lattices (Q2655174)

In this detailed and carefully written paper the authors establish a new criterion for Kazhdan's property (T). In its most general form the criterion deals with groups associated with a graph of groups over a finite graph \(Y\), and is applicable whenever the first eigenvalue of certain ``weighted Laplacian'' of \(Y\) is sufficiently large. An application of this criterion established the main result of the paper, that for \(n \geq 3\) and \(R\) an arbitrary finitely generated associative ring, \(EL_n(R)\) (the subgroup of \(GL_n(R)\) generated by elementary matrices) has property (T). A consequence of this result is that an example of Kassabov is indeed a counterexample to a conjecture of Lubotzky and Weiss: that an infinite compact group cannot contain finitely generated dense subgroups one of which is amenable and the other satisfying property (T). Finally the authors introduce a class of groups they call Kac-Moody-Steinberg groups and show that many of these groups have property (T). Homomorphic images of Kac-Moody-Steinberg groups include many Steinberg groups as well as certain parabolic subgroups of ordinary Kac-Moody groups, hence the name.