A Γ\Gamma is arithmetic if it is in PSL2(C)\operatorname{PSL}_2(\mathbb C) with the projective image of ρ(O1)\rho(\mathcal O^1), for data satisfying all of the following:

  • KK is a number field with exactly one conjugate pair of nonreal complex embeddings;
  • BB is a quaternion algebra over KK, ;
  • OB\mathcal O\subset B is an order and O1\mathcal O^1 is its ;
  • ρ:BM2(C)\rho:B\hookrightarrow M_2(\mathbb C) comes from a splitting BK,σCM2(C)B\otimes_{K,\sigma}\mathbb C\cong M_2(\mathbb C) at one of the nonreal embeddings σ\sigma.

“One complex place” means one conjugate pair, not one individual embedding. The finite-index commensurability requirement is essential; an arbitrary infinite-index subgroup of such a group need not be arithmetic in this sense.

Geometric consequence

These groups have finite hyperbolic covolume. The real-place ramification condition makes the other archimedean norm-one factors compact. Bianchi groups arise from the split algebra over an imaginary quadratic field.

References
  1. F. W. Gehring, C. Maclachlan, G. J. Martin, and A. W. Reid, Arithmeticity, discreteness and volume, Transactions of the AMS 349 (1997). Author-hosted paper, §4, definition on p. 3618.