Spectral gap properties of the unitary groups: around Rider's results on non-commutative Sidon sets

We present a proof of Rider's unpublished result that the union of two Sidon sets in the dual of a non-commutative compact group is Sidon, and that randomly Sidon sets are Sidon. Most likely this proof is essentially the one announced by Rider and communicated in a letter to the author around 1979 (lost by him since then). The key fact is a spectral gap property with respect to certain representations of the unitary groups $U(n)$ that holds uniformly over $n$. The proof crucially uses Weyl's character formulae. We survey the results that we obtained 30 years ago using Rider's unpublished results. Using a recent different approach valid for certain orthonormal systems of matrix valued functions, we give a new proof of the spectral gap property that is required to show that the union of two Sidon sets is Sidon. The latter proof yields a rather good quantitative estimate. Several related results are discussed with possible applications to random matrix theory.Comment: v2: minor corrections, v3 more minor corrections v4) minor corrections, last section removed to be included in another paper in preparation with E. Breuillard v5) more minor corrections + two references added. The paper will appear in a volume dedicated to the memory of V. P. Havi

Singularities of free group character varieties

Let X be the moduli space of SL(n,C), SU(n), GL(n,C), or U(n)-valued representations of a rank r free group. We classify the algebraic singular stratification of X. This comes down to showing that the singular locus corresponds exactly to reducible representations if there exist singularities at all. Then by relating algebraic singularities to topological singularities, we show the moduli spaces X generally are not topological manifolds, except for a few examples we explicitly describe.Comment: 33 pages. Version 4 is shorter and more focused; cut material will be expanded upon and written up in subsequent papers. Clarifications, and expository revisions have been added. Accepted for publication in Pacific Journal of Mathematic

Dynamics of the mapping class group action on the variety of PSL(2,C) characters

We study the action of the mapping class group Mod(S) on the boundary dQ of quasifuchsian space Q. Among other results, Mod(S) is shown to be topologically transitive on the subset C in dQ of manifolds without a conformally compact end. We also prove that any open subset of the character variety X(pi_1(S),SL(2,C)) intersecting dQ does not admit a nonconstant Mod(S)-invariant meromorphic function. This is related to a question of Goldman.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology on 11 July 200

Wave Front Sets of Reductive Lie Group Representations II

In this paper it is shown that the wave front set of a direct integral of singular, irreducible representations of a real, reductive algebraic group is contained in the singular set. Combining this result with the results of the first paper in this series, the author obtains asymptotic results on the occurrence of tempered representations in induction and restriction problems for real, reductive algebraic groups.Comment: Accepted to Transactions of the American Mathematical Societ