| Summary: | In this paper we investigate generalizations of Kazhdan's property $(T)$ to the setting of uniformly convex Banach spaces. We explain the interplay between the existence of spectral gaps and that of Kazhdan projections. Our methods employ Markov operators associated to a random walk on the group, for which we provide new norm estimates and convergence results. They exhibit useful properties and flexibility, and allow to view Kazhdan projections in Banach spaces as natural objects associated to random walks on groups. We give a number of applications of these results. In particular, we address several open questions. We give a direct comparison of properties $(TE)$ and $FE$ with Lafforgue's reinforced Banach property $(T)$; we obtain shrinking target theorems for orbits of Kazhdan groups; finally, answering a question of Willett and Yu we construct non-compact ghost projections for warped cones. In this last case we conjecture that such warped cones provide counterexamples to the coarse Baum-Connes conjecture.
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