Joint IAS/Princeton University Number Theory Seminar

In their seminal work from the 80’s, Lubotzky, Phillips and Sarnak gave explicit constructions of topological generators for PU(2) with optimal covering properties. In this talk I will describe some recent works that extend the construction of LPS to higher rank compact Lie groups. A key ingredient in the work of LPS is the Ramanujan conjecture for U(2), which follows from Deligne's proof of the Ramanujan-Petersson conjecture for GL(2). Unfortunately, the naive generalization of the Ramanujan conjecture is false for higher rank groups. Following a program initiated by Sarnak in the 90's, we prove a density hypothesis and use it as a replacement of the naive Ramanujan conjecture. This talk is based on some joint works with Ori Parzanchevski and Amitay Kamber.