\(\operatorname{SL}_2\) representations and relative property (T) (Q6144365)

There are many equivalent definitions of Kazhdan's property (T) for a locally compact group \(G\). One of them tells us that \(G\) has property (T) if any unitary representation of \(G\) that has almost \(G\)-invariant vectors actually has nonzero \(G\)-invariant vectors. A weaker notion is the relative property (T): for \(H\) a closed subgroup of \(G\), the group pair \((G, H)\) is said to have relative property (T) if every unitary representation of \(G\) with almost \(G\)-invariant vectors has nonzero \(H\)-invariant vectors. Although by now there are many examples of groups (resp. group pairs) with property (T) (resp. relative property (T)), this paper aims to unify some of the 'standalone examples'. The author proposes to study them as coming from particular cases of \(sl_2(\mathbb{C})\) representations. Namely, take a faithful, finite dimensional \(sl_2(\mathbb{C})\)-module \(V\) and, what is called in the article, an \textit{admissible lattice} \(V_{\mathbb{Z}}\) of \(V\). Then for any commutative ring \(R\) consider \(V(R): =V_{\mathbb{Z}} \otimes R\), as well as the subgroup \(EL_2(R)\) of \(SL_2(R)\) generated by all elementary matrices. If \(R\) is a discrete finitely generated unital commutative ring then the article provides new infinite families of (discrete) relative (T) group pairs. Those are \((EL_2(R) \ltimes W_n(R), W_n(R))\), for all \(n \geq 2\), where \(W_n(R)\) is the so-called Weyl module associated with the irreducible \(n\)-dimensional \(sl_2(\mathbb{C})\)-module \(V(n-1)\). Moreover, if \(\mathbb{K}\) is a local field, a second main result of the article shows that \((SL_2(\mathbb{K}) \ltimes W_{n+1}(\mathbb{K}), W_{n+1}(\mathbb{K}))\) is again a relative property (T) group pair. Now, if one takes the dual Weyl module \(D_{n+1}(\mathbb{K})\) (i.e. the dual of \(W_{n+1}(\mathbb{K})\)), the things are similar, but not quite: \((SL_2(\mathbb{K}) \ltimes D_{n+1}(\mathbb{K}), D_{n+1}(\mathbb{K}))\) is a relative property (T) group pair if and only if \(\frac{n}{2}+1 \neq p^{\alpha}\), where \(\alpha \in \mathbb{N}\) and \(p\) the characteristic of \(\mathbb{K}\). Even more interestingly, for \(\Omega\) be the polynomial ring in two or more variables over the integers, if \(\frac{n}{2}+1 = p^{\alpha}\), with \(\alpha \in \mathbb{N}\), then the group pair \((EL_2(\Omega) \ltimes D_{n+1}(\Omega), D_{n+1}(\Omega))\) does not have the relative property (T).