On discrepancy, intrinsic Diophantine approximation, and spectral gaps (Q6583679)

The spectral gap property referred to in the title of the paper under review is the lack of almost invariant vectors for a unitary representations of a locally compact group. The authors study quantitative aspects of that property, by estimating operator norms of suitable averaging operators. This issue is shown to be related to the problem of establishing bounds on the discrepancy of distribution for rational points on algebraic group varieties. The corresponding results are applied to the study of the property (\(\tau\)) of congruence subgroups of arithmetic lattices in algebraic groups which are forms of \(\mathrm{SL}_2\).