On Rapid mixing for random walks on nilmanifolds

Abstract

We prove rapid mixing for almost all random walks generated by $m$ translations on an arbitrary nilmanifold under mild assumptions on the size of $m$. For several classical classes of nilmanifolds, we show $m=2$ suffices. This provides a partial answer to the question raised in \cite{D02} about the prevalence of rapid mixing for random walks on homogeneous spaces.

18 pages