Lie type quotients of the maximal unipotent subgroup of Kac-Moody groups of type ${\mathrm{H}\mathrm{B}}_2^{(2)}$

In this article, we construct infinite families $(G_n{)}_{n\in \mathbb{N}}$ of finite simple groups $G_n$ of Lie type, such that the rank of $G_n$ strictly increases as $n$ tends to infinity, and such that each $G_n$ is a quotient of the maximal unipotent subgroup $U^{+}$ of the (minimal) Kac-Moody group ${\mathfrak{G}}_A(\mathbb{K})$ of type ${\mathrm{H}\mathrm{B}}_2^{(2)}$ over a finite field $\mathbb{K}$. Moreover, we show that the quotient maps lead to the construction of an infinite family of bounded degree spectral high-dimensional expanders. These provide the first class of examples of infinite families of high-dimensional expanders constructed from Lie type groups of unbounded rank.