Surface Words are Determined by Word Measures on Groups

Every word $w$ in a free group naturally induces a probability measure on every compact group $G$. For example, if $w=\left[x,y\right]$ is the commutator word, a random element sampled by the $w$-measure is given by the commutator $\left[g,h\right]$ of two independent, Haar-random elements of $G$. Back in 1896, Frobenius showed that if $G$ is a finite group and $\psi$ an irreducible character, then the expected value of $\psi\left(\left[g,h\right]\right)$ is $\frac{1}{\psi\left(e\right)}$. This is true for any compact group, and completely determines the $\left[x,y\right]$-measure on these groups. An analogous result holds with the commutator word replaced by any surface word. We prove a converse to this theorem: if $w$ induces the same measure as $\left[x,y\right]$ on every compact group, then, up to an automorphism of the free group, $w$ is equal to $\left[x,y\right]$. The same holds when $\left[x,y\right]$ is replaced by any surface word. The proof relies on the analysis of word measures on unitary groups and on orthogonal groups, which appears in separate papers, and on new analysis of word measures on generalized symmetric groups that we develop here.Comment: 16 pages, fixed the proof of Theorem 3.6, updated reference

Ramanujan Coverings of Graphs

Let $G$ be a finite connected graph, and let $\rho$ be the spectral radius of its universal cover. For example, if $G$ is $k$-regular then $\rho=2\sqrt{k-1}$. We show that for every $r$, there is an $r$-covering (a.k.a. an $r$-lift) of $G$ where all the new eigenvalues are bounded from above by $\rho$. It follows that a bipartite Ramanujan graph has a Ramanujan $r$-covering for every $r$. This generalizes the $r=2$ case due to Marcus, Spielman and Srivastava (2013). Every $r$-covering of $G$ corresponds to a labeling of the edges of $G$ by elements of the symmetric group $S_{r}$. We generalize this notion to labeling the edges by elements of various groups and present a broader scenario where Ramanujan coverings are guaranteed to exist. In particular, this shows the existence of richer families of bipartite Ramanujan graphs than was known before. Inspired by Marcus-Spielman-Srivastava, a crucial component of our proof is the existence of interlacing families of polynomials for complex reflection groups. The core argument of this component is taken from a recent paper of them (2015). Another important ingredient of our proof is a new generalization of the matching polynomial of a graph. We define the $r$-th matching polynomial of $G$ to be the average matching polynomial of all $r$-coverings of $G$. We show this polynomial shares many properties with the original matching polynomial. For example, it is real rooted with all its roots inside $\left[-\rho,\rho\right]$.Comment: 38 pages, 4 figures, journal version (minor changes from previous arXiv version). Shortened version appeared in STOC 201