Random products of automorphisms of Heisenberg nilmanifolds and Weil’s representation

Abstract

AbstractForn≥1, letHbe the (2n+1)-dimensional real Heisenberg group, and let Λ be a lattice inH. Let Γ be the group of automorphisms of the corresponding nilmanifold Λ∖HandUthe associated unitary representation of Γ onL2(Λ∖H) . Denote byTthe maximal torus factor associated to Λ∖H. Using Weil’s representation (also known as the metaplectic representation), we show that a dense set of matrix coefficients of the restriction ofUto the orthogonal complement ofL2(T) inL2(Λ∖H) belong toℓ4n+2+ε(Γ) for every ε>0 . We give the following application to random walks on Λ∖Hdefined by a probability measureμon Aut (Λ∖H) . Denoting by Γ(μ) the subgroup of Aut (Λ∖H) generated by the support ofμand byU0andV0the restrictions ofUto, respectively, the subspaces ofL2(Λ∖H) andL2(T) with zero mean, we prove the following inequality:whereλis the left regular representation of Γ(μ) onℓ2(Γ(μ)) . In particular, the action of Γ(μ) on Λ∖Hhas a spectral gap if and only if the corresponding action of Γ(μ) onThas a spectral gap.