S-Subgroups of the Real Hyperbolic Groups

Abstract

IfHis a closed subgroup of a locally compact groupG, withG/Hhaving finiteG-invariant measure, then, as observed by Atle Selberg [8], for any neighborhoodUof the identity inGand any elementginG, there is an integern >0 such thatgnis inU·H·U.A subgroup satisfying this latter condition is said to be anS-sub group,or satisfiesproperty (S).IfGis a solvable Lie group, then the converse of Selberg's result has been proved by S. P. Wang [10]: IfHis a closedS-subgroup ofG,thenG/His compact. Property(S)has been used by A. Borel in the important “density theorem” (see Section 2 or [1]).