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Alexander Lubotzky

Publications and source records attributed to Alexander Lubotzky.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Non Uniform Kazhdan Constant for Linear Groups

A group $Γ$ generated by a finite set $S$ has Property $(T)$ if the associated Kazhdan constant $κ(Γ,S)$ is positive. If so, the same holds for every finite generating set $S$. There are Property $(T)$ groups which are uniformly $(T)$, and others which are not. It is a well-known problem whether the classical examples of Property $(T)$ groups, $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$, $n\geq 3$, are uniformly $(T)$ or not. We show that they are not. Moreover, the same holds for every infinite finitely generated linear group.

math.GR↗
arXiv2026

Subgroups with all finite lifts isomorphic are conjugate

We show that for non-conjugate subgroups $G_1$ and $G_2$ of a finite group $G$ there exists an extension of $G$ (by a finite group) in which the pre-images of $G_1$ and $G_2$ are not isomorphic. This allows us to show that $\mathbb Z$-coset equivalent subgroups of a finite group are not necessarily isomorphic, answering a question of Dipendra Prasad. We also indicate connections to profinite rigidity, anabelian geometry, mapping class groups, and non-arithmetic lattices in Lie groups.

math.GR↗
arXiv2026

$\mathbb{Z}^2$ is flexibly stable in the operator norm

A cornerstone of stability theory is Voiculescu's 1983 counterexample: he constructed a sequence of pairs of unitary matrices whose commutators converge to zero in the operator norm, but whose distances from the set of commuting unitary pairs remain bounded away from zero. Namely, the group $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is not stable in the operator norm. We prove, somewhat surprisingly, that stability is restored after an asymptotically negligible enlargement of the dimension. That is, the group $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is flexibly stable in the operator norm. This provides the first example, in any context, of a flexibly stable group that is not stable. Building on a construction of Eckhardt, who produced finitely generated amenable groups that are very-flexibly stable but not flexibly stable in the normalized Hilbert-Schmidt norm, we show that the same groups exhibit the analogous separation in the operator norm: they are very-flexibly stable but not flexibly stable.

math.OA↗
arXiv2026

On $L^1$-approximation of groups

A longstanding open problem in the intersection of group theory and operator algebras is whether all groups are MF, that is, approximated by asymptotic representations with respect to the operator norm. More generally, for $1 \leq p \leq \infty$, it has been asked by Thom in his ICM address whether there exist groups which are not approximated with respect to the Schatten $p$-norm. The cases of $1 < p < \infty$ were addressed in previous works. We settle the case $p=1$, solving a question left open by Lubotzky and Oppenheim.

math.GR↗
arXiv2026

Some remarks on Grothendieck pairs

We revisit the paper of Alexander Grothendiek where he introduced Grothendieck pairs and discuss the relation between profinite rigidity and left/right Grothendieck rigidity. We also show that various groups are left and/or right Grothendieck rigid and, in particular, all ascending HNN extensiona of finitely generated free groups are right Grothendieck rigid. Along the way we present a number of questions and suggestions for further research.

math.GR↗
arXiv2025

Finite groups and complex projective surfaces

In response to a question raised by Belolipetsky and the first author, we prove that for every finite group $G$ there are infinitely many isomorphism classes of compact complex hyperbolic $2$-manifolds with automorphism group isomorphic to $G$.

math.GT↗
arXiv2025

Characteristic Subgroup Growth

Let $s_n^\mathrm{ch}(Γ)$ denote the number of characteristic subgroups of index at most $n$ in a finitely generated group $Γ$. In response to a question of I. Rivin we show that if $Γ= F_r$ is the free group on $r \geq 2$ generators then the growth type of $s_n^{\mathrm{ch}}(F_r)$ is $n^{\mathrm{log}(n)}$. This is in contrast with the expectation of W. Thurston who predicted that there should be a difference between $r = 2$ and $r > 2$. Along the way we answer a question of arXiv:1703.07866 on the normal subgroup growth of large groups.

math.GR↗
arXiv2025

Explicit Lossless Vertex Expanders

We give the first construction of explicit constant-degree lossless vertex expanders. Specifically, for any $\varepsilon > 0$ and sufficiently large $d$, we give an explicit construction of an infinite family of $d$-regular graphs where every small set $S$ of vertices has $(1-\varepsilon)d|S|$ neighbors (which implies $(1-2\varepsilon)d|S|$ unique-neighbors). Our results also extend naturally to construct biregular bipartite graphs of any constant imbalance, where small sets on each side have strong expansion guarantees. The graphs we construct admit a free group action, and hence realize new families of quantum LDPC codes of Lin and M. Hsieh with a linear time decoding algorithm. Our construction is based on taking an appropriate product of a constant-sized lossless expander with a base graph constructed from Ramanujan Cayley cubical complexes.

math.CO↗
arXiv2024

Conditional Non-Soficity of p-adic Deligne Extensions: on a Theorem of Gohla and Thom

A long standing problem asks whether every group is sofic, i.e., can be separated by almost-homomorphisms to the symmetric group $Sym(n)$. Similar problems have been asked with respect to almost-homomorphisms to the unitary group $U(n)$, equipped with various norms. One of these problems has been solved for the first time in [De Chiffre, Gelbsky, Lubotzky, Thom, 2020]: some central extensions $\widetildeΓ$ of arithmetic lattices $Γ$ of $Sp(2g,\mathbb{Q}_p)$ were shown to be non-Frobenius approximated by almost homomorphisms to $U(n)$. Right after, it was shown that similar results hold with respect to the $p$-Schatten norms in [Lubotzky, Oppenheim, 2020]. It is natural, and has already been suggested in [Chapman, Lubotzky, 2024] and [Gohla, Thom, 2024], to check whether the $\widetildeΓ$ are also non-sofic. In order to show that they are (also) non-sofic, it suffices: (a) To prove that the permutation Cheeger constant of the simplicial complex underlying $Γ$ is positive, generalizing [Evra, Kaufman, 2016]. This would imply that $Γ$ is stable. (b) To prove that the (flexible) stability of $Γ$ implies the non-soficity of $\widetildeΓ$. Clause (b) was proved by Gohla and Thom. Here we offer a more algebraic/combinatorial treatment to their theorem.

math.CO↗
arXiv2024

The Aldous--Lyons Conjecture I: Subgroup Tests

This paper, and its companion [BCV24], are devoted to a negative resolution of the Aldous--Lyons Conjecture [AL07, Ald07]. This conjecture, originated in probability theory, is well known (cf. [Gel18]) to be equivalent to the statement that every invariant random subgroup of the free group is co-sofic. We disprove this last statement. In this part we introduce subgroup tests. These tests are finite distributions over continuous functions from the space of subgroups of the free group to $\{0,1\}$. Subgroup tests provide a general framework in which one can study invariant random subgroups of the free group. Classical notions such as group soficity and group stability arise naturally in this framework. By the correspondence between subgroups of the free group and Schreier graphs, one can view subgroup tests as a property testing model for certain edge-labeled graphs. This correspondence also provides the connection to random networks. Subgroup tests have values, which are their asymptotic optimal expectations when integrated against co-sofic invariant random subgroups. Our first main result is that, if every invariant random subgroup of the free group is co-sofic, then one can approximate the value of a subgroup test up to any positive additive constant. Our second main result is an essentially value preserving correspondence between certain non-local games and subgroup tests. By composing this correspondence with a stronger variant of the reduction in MIP*=RE [JNV+21], proved in the companion paper [BCV24], we deduce that approximating the sofic value of a subgroup test is as hard as the Halting Problem, and in particular, undecidable. The combination of our two main results proves the existence of non co-sofic invariant random subgroups of the free group.

math.GR↗
arXiv2024

Non-congruence presentations of finite simple groups

We prove two results on some special generators of finite simple groups and use them to prove that every non-abelian finite simple group $S$ admits a non-congruence presentation (as conjectured in [CLT24]), and that if $S$ has a non-trivial Schur multiplier, then it admits a smooth cover (as conjectured in [CFLZ]).

math.GR↗
arXiv2024

Non-commutative error correcting codes and proper subgroup testing

Property testing has been a major area of research in computer science in the last three decades. By property testing we refer to an ensemble of problems, results and algorithms which enable to deduce global information about some data by only reading small random parts of it. In recent years, this theory found its way into group theory, mainly via group stability. In this paper, we study the following problem: Devise a randomized algorithm that given a subgroup $H$ of $G$, decides whether $H$ is the whole group or a proper subgroup, by checking whether a single (random) element of $G$ is in $H$. The search for such an algorithm boils down to the following purely group theoretic problem: For $G$ of rank $k$, find a small as possible test subset $A\subseteq G$ such that for every proper subgroup $H$, $|H\cap A|\leq (1-δ)|A|$ for some absolute constant $δ>0$, which we call the detection probability of $A$. It turns out that the search for sets $A$ of size linear in $k$ and constant detection probability is a non-commutative analogue of the classical search for families of good error correcting codes. This paper is devoted to proving that such test subsets exist, which implies good universal error correcting codes exist -- providing a far reaching generalization of the classical result of Shannon. In addition, we study this problem in certain subclasses of groups -- such as abelian, nilpotent, and finite solvable groups -- providing different constructions of test subsets for these subclasses with various qualities. Finally, this generalized theory of non-commutative error correcting codes suggests a plethora of interesting problems and research directions.

math.GR↗
arXiv2024

Low Acceptance Agreement Tests via Bounded-Degree Symplectic HDXs

We solve the derandomized direct product testing question in the low acceptance regime, by constructing new high dimensional expanders that have no small connected covers. We show that our complexes have swap cocycle expansion, which allows us to deduce the agreement theorem by relying on previous work. Derandomized direct product testing, also known as agreement testing, is the following problem. Let X be a family of k-element subsets of [n] and let $\{f_s:s\toΣ\}_{s\in X}$ be an ensemble of local functions, each defined over a subset $s\subset [n]$. Suppose that we run the following so-called agreement test: choose a random pair of sets $s_1,s_2\in X$ that intersect on $\sqrt k$ elements, and accept if $f_{s_1},f_{s_2}$ agree on the elements in $s_1\cap s_2$. We denote the success probability of this test by $Agr(\{f_s\})$. Given that $Agr(\{f_s\})=ε>0$, is there a global function $G:[n]\toΣ$ such that $f_s = G|_s$ for a non-negligible fraction of $s\in X$ ? We construct a family X of k-subsets of $[n]$ such that $|X| = O(n)$ and such that it satisfies the low acceptance agreement theorem. Namely, $Agr (\{f_s\}) > ε\; \; \longrightarrow$ there is a function $G:[n]\toΣ$ such that $\Pr_s[f_s\overset{0.99}{\approx} G|_s]\geq poly(ε)$. A key idea is to replace the well-studied LSV complexes by symplectic high dimensional expanders (HDXs). The family X is just the k-faces of the new symplectic HDXs. The later serve our needs better since their fundamental group satisfies the congruence subgroup property, which implies that they lack small covers. We also give a polynomial-time algorithm to construct this family of symplectic HDXs.

cs.CC↗
arXiv2024

Stability of Homomorphisms, Coverings and Cocycles I: Equivalence

This paper is motivated by recent developments in group stability, high dimensional expansion, local testability of error correcting codes and topological property testing. In Part I, we formulate and motivate three stability problems: 1. Homomorphism stability: Are almost homomorphisms close to homomorphisms? 2. Covering stability: Are almost coverings of a cell complex close to genuine coverings of it? 3. Cocycle stability: Are 1-cochains whose coboundary is small close to 1-cocycles? We then prove that these three problems are equivalent.

math.GR↗
arXiv2024

Stability of Homomorphisms, Coverings and Cocycles II: Examples, Applications and Open problems

Coboundary expansion (with $\mathbb{F}_2$ coefficients), and variations on it, have been the focus of intensive research in the last two decades. It was used to study random complexes, property testing, and above all Gromov's topological overlapping property. In part I of this paper, we extended the notion of coboundary expansion (and its variations) to cochains with permutation coefficients, equipped with the normalized Hamming distance. We showed that this gives a unified language for studying covering stability of complexes, as well as stability of group homomorphisms -- a topic that drew a lot of attention in recent years. In this part, we extend the theory to the permutation coefficients setting. This gives some new results, even for $\mathbb{F}_2$ coefficients, opens several new directions of research, and suggests a pattern to proving the existence of non-sofic groups. Along the way, we solve the dimension $2$ case of a problem of Gromov, exhibiting a family of bounded degree coboundary expanders with $\mathbb{F}_2$ coefficients.

math.GR↗
arXiv2023

Asymptotic Cohomology and Uniform Stability for Lattices in Semisimple Groups

It is, by now, classical that lattices in higher rank semisimple groups have various rigidity properties. In this work, we add another such rigidity property to the list: uniform stability with respect to the family of unitary operators on finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces equipped with submultiplicative norms. Namely, we show that for (most) high-rank lattices, every finite-dimensional unitary "almost-representation" of $Γ$ is a small deformation of a (true) unitary representation. This extends a result of Kazhdan (1983) for amenable groups and of Burger-Ozawa-Thom (2013) for SL(n,Z) (for n>2). Towards this goal, we first build an elaborate cohomological theory capturing the obstruction to such stability, and show that the vanishing of second cohomology implies uniform stability in this setting. This cohomology can be roughly thought of as an asymptotic version of bounded cohomology, and sheds light on a question raised in Monod (2006) about a possible connection between vanishing of second bounded cohomology and Ulam stability.

math.GR↗
arXiv2022

Property FA is not a profinite property

We exhibit infinitely many pairs of non-isomorphic finitely presented, residually finite groups $Δ$ and $Γ$ with $Δ$ having Property FA, $Γ$ having a non-trivial action on a tree and $Δ$ and $Γ$ having isomorphic profinite completions.

math.GR↗