Expected depth of random walks on groups

Abstract: For

G

a finitely generated group and

g i n G

, we say

g

is detected by a normal subgroup

N l h d G

if

g o t i n N

. The depth

D_{G} (g)

of

g

is the lowest index of a normal, finite index subgroup

N

that detects

g

. In this paper we study the expected depth,

m a t h b b E [D_{G} (X_{n})]

, where

X_{n}

is a random walk on

G

. We give several criteria that imply that

mathbb E[D_G(X_n)] xrightarrow[n o infty]{} 2 + sum_{k geq 2}frac{1}{[G:Lambda_k]}, ,

where

L a m b d a_{k}

is the intersection of all normal subgroups of index at most

k

. In particular, the equality holds in the class of all nilpotent groups and in the class of all linear groups satisfying Kazhdan Property

(T)

. We explain how the right-hand side above appears as a natural limit and also give an example where the convergence does not hold.

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