The structure of approximate lattices in linear groups

Approximate lattices are aperiodic generalisations of lattices of locally compact groups that were first studied in seminal work of Yves Meyer. They are defined as those uniformly discrete approximate subgroups (symmetric subsets stable under multiplication up to a finite error) of locally compact groups that have finite co-volume. Meyer showed that approximate lattices of Euclidean spaces (a.k.a. Meyer sets) are related to lattices in higher-dimensional Euclidean spaces via the cut-and-project construction. A fundamental challenge of the theory of approximate lattices is to extend Meyer's theorem beyond Euclidean spaces. Our main result provides a complete structure theorem for approximate lattices valid in all linear algebraic groups over local fields and their finite products, in particular providing the most general extension of Meyer's theorem to date. Our proof relies on an extension of a theorem of Lubotzky--Mozes--Raghunathan to approximate lattices in S-adic semi-simple groups, a notion of cohomology tailored to the study of approximate subgroups, a universality statement complementing a recent result of Hrushovski and a generalisation of a result of Burger and Monod about bounded cohomology of lattices.