Hurwitz ball quotients (Q463961)

The author studies the size of the automorphism group of a \(2\)-Ball quotient in terms of its Euler characteristic. In analogy with Hurwitz's bound \[ |\mathrm{Aut}(C)| \leq -42 e(C) \] for smooth projective curves \(C\), the author proves \[ |\mathrm{Aut}(S)| \leq 288 e(S) \] for smooth projective surfaces covered by \(B^2\) whose fundamental groups are arithmetic. To describe the results more precisely, we recall the Deligne-Mostow orbifolds. These are natural two-dimensional generalizations of the \((p,q,r)\)-triangle orbifolds. For any \(n \geq 1\), consider an \((n+3)\)-tuple \((a_1, a_2, \cdots, a_{n+3})\) of positive integers with even sum \(2t\). The tuple \[ (\mu_1, \mu_2, \cdots, \mu_{n+3}) \] where \(\mu_i = \frac{a_i}{t} (i \leq n+3)\) said to be a ball-tuple if, for all \(j \neq k\), \[ \mu_j + \mu_k < 1~,\text{and}~\mu_j \neq \mu_k \Rightarrow (1- \mu_j - \mu_k)^{-1} \in \mathbb{Z}; \] \[ \mu_j + \mu_k < 1~,\text{and}~\mu_j = \mu_k \Rightarrow (1- \mu_j - \mu_k)^{-1} \in \frac{1}{2} \mathbb{Z}. \] \textit{P. Deligne} and \textit{G. D. Mostow} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 63, 5--89 (1986; Zbl 0615.22008)] constructed a lattice in \(\mathrm{PU}(n,1)\) corresponding to each ball-tuple and described the quotient orbifold in terms of moduli of points on \(\mathbb{P}^1\). When \(n=1\), this construction produces \((r_1,r_2,2_3)\)-triangle orbifolds where \(r_i = (1- \mu_i - \mu_{i+1})^{-1}\) for \(i=1,2,3\). The author proves: Let \(\mathbb{O} = B^2/\Gamma\) be a finite volume quotient by an arithmetic lattice \(\Gamma\) of \(\mathrm{PU}(2,1)\). Then \(e(\mathbb{O}) \geq \frac{1}{288}\) with equality holding only for the Deligne-Mostow orbifold \(\mathbb{O}\) corresponding to the ball-tuple \((\frac{2}{12}, \frac{2}{12}, \frac{2}{12}, \frac{7}{12}, \frac{11}{12})\). He also shows that the above result has the equivalent form: Let \(S\) be a smooth projective surface uniformized by \(B^2\), and suppose that \(\pi_1(S) \subset \mathrm{PU}(2,1)\) is an arithmetic lattice. Then \(|\mathrm{Aut}(S)| \leq 288 e(S)\) with equality holding if, and only if, \(S/\mathrm{Aut}(S)\) is the Deligne-Mostow orbifold corresponding to the ball-tuple \((\frac{2}{12}, \frac{2}{12}, \frac{2}{12}, \frac{7}{12}, \frac{11}{12})\). The above results are conjectured to continue holding good without the assumption of arithmeticity. An even more interesting conjecture asserts: Conjecture. The unique minimum volume quotient of \(B^2\) is the Deligne-Mostow orbifold corresponding to the ball-tuple \((\frac{2}{12}, \frac{2}{12}, \frac{2}{12}, \frac{7}{12}, \frac{11}{12})\). The principal ingredient of the proofs is \textit{G. Prasad}'s well-known volume computation [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 69, 91--117 (1989; Zbl 0695.22005)]. We single out the following striking result proved on the way: There is a unique arithmetic lattice \(\Gamma \subset \mathrm{PU}(2,1)\) such that \[ e(B^2/\Gamma) = \frac{1}{288} \leq e(B^2/\Lambda) \] for every arithmetic lattice \(\Lambda\) with equality holding if and only if \(\Lambda \cong \Gamma\). The commensurability class of \(\Gamma\) is determined by the data: \(k= \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{3})\), \(l = k(i)\), \(\tau\) is complex conjugation and \(h\) is the \(\tau\)-hermitian form on \(l^3\) with matrix diag \((1,1,1- \sqrt{3})\).