Jordan decomposition in lattices and quasi unipotence (Q930808)

To describe the main results of the paper under review, let \(G\) be the group of real points of a semisimple algebraic group over \({\mathbb R}\) and assume that \(\Gamma\subseteq G\) is a lattice. In this setting, one proves that if the element \(\gamma\in\Gamma\) has the Jordan decomposition \(\gamma=\gamma_s\gamma_u\), then there exists a positive integer \(m\) such that \(\gamma_s^m,\gamma_u^m\in\Gamma\). If moreover the real rank of \(G\) is equal to one and \(\gamma_u\neq1\), then there exists an integer \(n\geq1\) such that \(\gamma^n=\gamma_u^n\), that is, the element \(\gamma\) is quasi-unipotent. The above result is then used to obtain an extension of a theorem of A.~Borel on arithmetic lattices as follows. Let \(\Gamma\subseteq G\) as above and assume in addition that \(\Gamma\) is a neat subgroup of \(G\) and that \(K\) is a maximal compact subgroup of \(G\) such that \(D=G/K\) is a Hermitian symmetric domain. Now let \(\theta\) be a generator of the fundamental group of the punctured unit disc \(\Delta^*=\{z\in{\mathbb C}\mid 0<| z|<1\}\). One proves that for every holomorphic map \(f\colon\Delta^*\to\Gamma\setminus D\) the image of \(\theta\) under \(f\) in the fundamental group~\(\Gamma\) of \(\Gamma\setminus D\) is a unipotent element.