Absence of principal eigenvalues for higher rank locally symmetric spaces (Q6076986)

Selberg's eigenvalue conjecture claims the absence of exceptional (also called principal) eigenvalues associated to any congruence subgroup of \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb Z)\). More precisely, \(\lambda_1(\Gamma\backslash \mathbb H^2)\geq \frac{1}{4}\), where \(\mathbb H^2\) denotes the hyperbolic plane, \(\Gamma\) is a congruence subgroup of \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb Z)\), and \(\lambda_1(\Gamma\backslash \mathbb H^2)\) denotes the smallest eigenvalue of the Laplace-Beltrami operator associated to the (non-compact and finite-volume) hyperbolic surface \(\Gamma\backslash \mathbb H^2\). It has been of great interest to study several kind of generalizations, for instance, when \(\Gamma\) is cocompact, \(\mathbb H^2\) replaced by a non-compact symmetric space, infinite-volume locally symmetric spaces, etc. This article considers the \(L^2\)-eigenvalues with respect to the whole algebra of invariant differential operators on a locally symmetric space of non-compact type. More precisely, for a symmetric space of non-compact type \(G/K\) and a discrete torsion-free subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(G\), there are no principal joint \(L^2\)-eigenvalues on \(\Gamma\backslash G/K\) under certain topological assumption. The mentioned topological assumptions is implied by the condition \(\operatorname{vol}(\Gamma\backslash \mathbb H^2)=\infty\) when \(G/K=\mathbb H^2\) and \(\Gamma\) is a geometrically finite subgroup of \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb R)\). Therefore, the main result of the paper under review extends a classical result by \textit{S. J. Patterson} [Compos. Math. 31, 83--107 (1975; Zbl 0321.30020)] that proves the non-existence of exceptional eigenvalues under the conditions mentioned above.