Novikov Conjectures for Arithmetic Groups with Large Actions at Infinity

We construct a new compactification of a noncompact rank one globally symmetric space. The result is a nonmetrizable space which also compactifies the Borel–Serre enlargement X of X , contractible only in the appropriate Čech sense, and with the action of any arithmetic subgroup of the isometry group of X on X not being small at infinity. Nevertheless, we show that such a compactification can be used in the approach to Novikov conjectures developed recently by G. Carlsson and E. K. Pedersen. In particular, we study the nontrivial instance of the phenomenon of bounded saturation in the boundary of X and deduce that integral assembly maps split in the case of a torsion-free arithmetic subgroup of a semi-simple algebraic Q-group of real rank one or, in fact, the fundamental group of any pinched hyperbolic manifold. Using a similar construction we also split assembly maps for neat subgroups of Hilbert modular groups. Mathematics Subject Classifications (1991): 19L47, 22E40, 55N15, 57R20.