On the spectral aspect density hypothesis and application

Abstract

We prove that the density of non-tempered (at any $p$-adic place) cuspidal representations for $\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$, varying over a family of representations ordered by their infinitesimal characters, is small -- confirming Sarnak's density hypothesis in this set-up. Among other ingredients, the proof uses tools from microlocal analysis for Lie group representations as developed by Nelson and Venkatesh. As an application, we prove that the Diophantine exponent of the $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{Z}[1/p])$-action on $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SO}_n(\mathbb{R})$ is \emph{optimal} -- resolving a conjecture of Ghosh, Gorodnik, and Nevo.