Flat cycles in the homology of \(\Gamma \setminus SL_m \mathbb{R} / SO(m)\) (Q894378)

Locally symmetric spaces contain maximal totally geodesic (compact) tori [\textit{G. Prasad} and \textit{M. S. Raghunathan}, Ann. Math. (2) 96, 296--317 (1972; Zbl 0245.22013)]. The authors show that these are homologically nontrivial in quotients of \(H=\mathrm{SL}_m(\mathbb R)/\mathrm{SO}(m)\). Thus let \(X\subset H\) be a flat of dimension \(m-1\) whose image in \(M=\mathrm{SL}_m(\mathbb Z)\backslash H\) is compact. Then there is a finite cover \(M'\) of \(M\) so that the image \(X'\) of \(X\) in \(M'\) represents a nontrivial rational homology class. This is proved by finding a closed submanifold of \(M'\) with nontrivial intersection number with \(X'\). The homology classes of these tori span arbitrary large subspaces of \(H_{m-1}(M',\mathbb Q)\). Let \(\Gamma\subset\mathrm{SL}_m(\mathbb Z)\) be a torsion free subgroup of finite index and denote by \(\Gamma(p^n)=\Gamma\cap\mathrm{ker}[\mathrm{SL}_m(\mathbb Z)\to\mathrm{SL}_m(\mathbb Z/p^n)]\) the \(p^n\)-congruence subgroup. The authors show that for every integer \(N\) there is \(n_N\) such that for every \(n>n_N\), the flat tori in \(\Gamma(p^n)\backslash H\) span an at least \(N\)-dimensional subspace of \(H_{m-1}(\Gamma(p^n)\backslash H,\mathbb Q)\).