Expansion, random walks and sieving in SL₂(F_p[t])

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Publication:501844



Abstract: We construct new examples of expander Cayley graphs of finite groups, arising as congruence quotients of non-elementary subgroups of SL2(mathbbFp[t]) modulo certain square-free ideals. We describe some applications of our results to simple random walks on such subgroups, specifically giving bounds on the rate of escape of such walks from algebraic subvarieties, the set of squares and the set of elements with reducible characteristic polynomial in SL2(mathbbFp[t]).


The author considers random walks on \(\Gamma:=\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb F_p[t])\), for a prime \(p\geq 3\), and establishes escape rates from various proper subsets. The elementary law \(\mu_S\) of the random walk is assumed to be uniform on a finite symmetric subset \(S\subset\Gamma\), that generates a non-elementary subgroup of \(\Gamma\). A first result provides the following escape rate from a proper algebraic subvariety \(V\) of \(\Gamma^r:\mu_S^{(n)\otimes r}(V)\leq C^{-1}e^{-Cn}\), for arbitrary convolution power \(n\) and some positive constant \(C\). A second result extends a previous result established in characteristic 0, and asserts that \(\mu_S^{(n)}(\{g^2\mid g\in\Gamma\})\leq C^{-1}e^{-C\sqrt{n/\log n}}\). A third result asserts that this same second estimate holds for the subset of those \(g\in\Gamma\) which have a reducible characteristic polynomial. The strategy of the author is based on the construction of convenient so-called ``expanders, that is to say, pairs \((G,\Sigma)\), where \(G\) is a finite group and \(\Sigma\) a symmetric subset of \(G\) such that the convolution by the uniform law on \(\Sigma\) yields an operator of norm \(<1\) in \(L^2_0(G)\). The construction of those expanders relies mainly on a method initiated by Bourgain and Gamburd, who use ``quasirandom groups \(G\). In this spirit, the author obtains families of expanders having the form \((\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb F_p[t]/(P)),S/(P))\), where \(S\) is as above, \(S/(P)\) denotes the canonical image of \(S\) in the quotient \(\mathbb F_p[t]/(P)\), and, for example, the polynomial \(P\in\mathbb F_p[t]\) is irreducible with degree having only large prime divisors.











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