The Operator Algebra content of the Ramanujan-Petersson Problem

Let $G$ be a discrete countable group, and let $Γ$ be an almost normal subgroup. In this paper we investigate the classification of (projective) unitary representations $π$ of $G$ into the unitary group of the Hilbert space $l^2(Γ)$ that extend the left regular representation of $Γ$. Representations with this property are obtained by restricting to $G$ square integrable representations of a larger semisimple Lie group $\bar G$, containing $G$ as dense subgroup and such that $Γ$ is a lattice in $\bar G$. This type of unitary representations of of $G$ appear in the study of automorphic forms. We prove that the Ramanujan-Petersson problem regarding the action of the Hecke algebra on the Hilbert space of $Γ$-invariant vectors for the unitary representation $π\otimes \barπ$ is an intrinsic problem on the outer automorphism group of the von Neumann algebra $\mathcal L(G \rtimes L^{\infty}(\mathcal G,μ))$, where $\mathcal G$ is the Schlichting completion of $G$ and $μ$ is the canonical Haar measure on $\mathcal G$.

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