Lattices of minimum covolume are non-uniform (Q375891)

The author considers lattices of minimum covolume in a simple Lie group over a positive characteristic local field, answering a question of A. Lubotzky. Some results of this paper are based on a particular case of the Weil's conjecture: it is assumed that the Tamagawa number of a special unitary group over a global function field equals 1. The main results of this paper are: 1. Let \(G_0\) be a simply connected \(f_q ((t))\)-group of absolute type \(A\). Any lattice of minimum covolume in \(G = G_0(f_q ((t)))\) is non-uniform if the Weil conjecture holds for groups of type \(A\). Here the fields \(f_q((t))\) of formal Laurent series over a finite field \(f_q\) (where \(q\) is a power of a prime \(p\)) are local function fields of positive characteristics. 2. Let \(G_0\) be a simply connected noncompact absolutely almost simple \(f_q ((t))\)-group. Then any lattice of minimum covolume in \(G = G_0(f_q ((t)))\) is non-uniform if the Weil conjecture holds for groups of type \(A\). It is known that the group \(G\) above does not have a uniform arithmetic lattice unless \(G_0\) is of type \(A\). Also it is known, due to Margulis's arithmeticity theorem, that any lattice of a simple Lie group of rank \(\geq 2\) is arithmetic. So the statement 1 above is a consequence of the statement 2.