We unify and extend some previous results about cubic ergodic averages and sets of positive density in products of groups. This provides a joint generalization of earlier work of the author in the case of two commuting actions of an amenable group, and of Q. Chu's recent result on a a finite number of commuting transformations.
We present a general new method for constructing pointwise ergodic sequences on countable groups, which is applicable to amenable as well as to non-amenable groups and treats both cases on an equal footing. The principle underlying the method is that both cases can be viewed as instances of the general ergodic theory of amenable equivalence relations.
We find limits of some multiple ergodic averages, generalizing a result of Bergelson to the setting of two commuting transformations and actions of amenable groups.
We prove a version of ergodic theorem for an action of an amenable group, where a Fø lner sequence needs not to be tempered. Instead, it is assumed that a function satisfies certain mixing condition.
Let $Γ$ be an amenable countable discrete group. Fix an ergodic free nonsingular action of $Γ$ on a nonatomic standard probability space. Let $G$ be a compactly generated locally compact second countable group such that the closure of the group of inner automorphisms of $G$ is compact in the natural topology. It is shown that there exists a {\it bounded} ergodic $G$-valued cocycle of $Γ$.
We study fluctuations of ergodic averages generated by actions of amenable groups. In the setting of an abstract ergodic theorem for locally compact second countable amenable groups acting on uniformly convex Banach spaces, we deduce a highly uniform bound on the number of fluctuations of the ergodic average for a class of Følner sequences satisfying an analogue of Lindenstrauss's temperedness condition. Equivalently, we deduce a uniform bound on the number of fluctuations over long distances for arbitrary Følner sequences. As a corollary, these results imply associated bounds for a continuous…
We study fluctuations of ergodic averages generated by actions of amenable groups. In the setting of an abstract ergodic theorem for locally compact second countable amenable groups acting on uniformly convex Banach spaces, we deduce a highly uniform bound on the number of fluctuations of the ergodic average for a class of Følner sequences satisfying an analogue of Lindenstrauss's temperedness condition. Equivalently, we deduce a uniform bound on the number of fluctuations over long distances for arbitrary Følner sequences. As a corollary, these results imply associated bounds for a continuous…
We apply Walsh's method for proving norm convergence of multiple ergodic averages to arbitrary amenable groups. We obtain convergence in the uniform Cesàro sense for their polynomial actions and for ``triangular'' averages associated to commuting homomorphic actions. The latter generalizes a result due to Bergelson, McCutcheon, and Zhang in the case of two actions.
We prove pointwise and maximal ergodic theorems for probability measure preserving (p.m.p.) actions of any countable group, provided it admits an essentially free, weakly mixing amenable action of stable type $III_1$. We show that this class contains all irreducible lattices in connected semisimple Lie groups without compact factors. We also establish similar results when the stable type is $III_λ$, $0 < λ< 1$, under a suitable hypothesis. Our approach is based on the following two principles. First, we show that it is possible to generalize the ergodic theory of p.m.p. actions of amenable gro…
We show that for any countable amenable group action, along Følner sequences that have for any $c>1$ a two sided $c$-tempered tail, one have universal estimate for the probability that there are $n$ fluctuations in the ergodic averages of $L^{\infty}$ functions, and this estimate gives exponential decay in $n$. Any two-sided Følner sequence can be thinned out to satisfy the above property, and in particular, any countable amenble group admits such a sequence. This extends results of S. Kalikow and B. Weiss for $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$ actions and of N. Moriakov for actions of groups with polynomial gr…
We prove that every ergodic amenable action of an algebraic group over a local field of characteristic zero is induced from an ergodic action of an amenable subgroup.
It is shown that each non-compact locally compact second countable non-(T) group $G$ possesses non-strongly ergodic weakly mixing IDPFT Poisson actions of arbitrary Krieger's type. These actions are amenable if and only if $G$ is amenable. If $G$ has the Haagerup property then (and only then) these actions can be chosen of 0-type. If $G$ is amenable and unimodular then $G$ has weakly mixing Bernoulli actions of any possible Krieger's type.
Let $G$ be a non-periodic amenable group. We prove that there does not exist a topological action of $G$ for which the set of ergodic invariant measures coincides with the set of all ergodic measure-theoretic $G$-systems of entropy zero. Previously J. Serafin, answering a question by B. Weiss, proved the same for $G = \mathbb{Z}$.
We introduce computable actions of computable groups and prove the following versions of effective Birkhoff's ergodic theorem. Let $Γ$ be a computable amenable group, then there always exists a canonically computable tempered two-sided Følner sequence $(F_n)_{n \geq 1}$ in $Γ$. For a computable, measure-preserving, ergodic action of $Γ$ on a Cantor space $\{0,1\}^{\mathbb N}$ endowed with a computable probability measure $μ$, it is shown that for every bounded lower semicomputable function $f$ on $\{0,1\}^{\mathbb N}$ and for every Martin-Löf random $ω\in \{0,1\}^{\mathbb N}$ the equality \[ \…
We prove a mean ergodic theorem for amenable discrete quantum groups. As an application, we prove a Wiener type theorem for continuous measures on compact metrizable groups.
We describe characteristic factors for certain averages arising from commuting actions of locally compact, second-countable, amenable groups. Under some ergodicity assumptions we use these factors to prove a form of multiple recurrence for three such actions.
The weak mean equicontinuous properties for a countable discrete amenable group $G$ acting continuously on a compact metrizable space $X$ are studied. It is shown that the weak mean equicontinuity of $(X \times X,G)$ is equivalent to the mean equicontinuity of $(X,G)$. Moreover, when $(X,G)$ has full measure center or $G$ is abelian, it is shown that $(X,G)$ is weak mean equicontinuous if and only if all points in $X$ are uniquely ergodic points and the map $x \to μ_x^G$ is continuous, where $μ_x^G$ is the unique ergodic measure on $\{\ol{Orb(x)}, G\}$.
This paper is devoted to the study of noncommutative ergodic theorems for connected amenable locally compact groups. For a dynamical system $(\mathcal{M},τ,G,σ)$, where $(\mathcal{M},τ)$ is a von Neumann algebra with a normal faithful finite trace and $(G,σ)$ is a connected amenable locally compact group with a well defined representation on $\mathcal{M}$, we try to find the largest noncommutative function spaces constructed from $\mathcal{M}$ on which the individual ergodic theorems hold. By using the Emerson-Greenleaf's structure theorem, we transfer the key question to proving the ergodic t…
Consider a subshift over a finite alphabet, $X\subset Λ^{\mathbb Z}$ (or $X\subsetΛ^{\mathbb N_0}$). With each finite block $B\inΛ^k$ appearing in $X$ we associate the empirical measure ascribing to every block $C\inΛ^l$ the frequency of occurrences of $C$ in $B$. By comparing the values ascribed to blocks $C$ we define a metric on the combined space of blocks $B$ and probability measures $μ$ on $X$, whose restriction to the space of measures is compatible with the weak-$\star$ topology. Next, in this combined metric space we fix an open set $\mathcal U$ containing all ergodic measures, and we…
We show that a certain tiling property (which directly implies the pointwise ergodic theorem) holds for pmp actions of amenable groups along increasing Tempelman Følner sequences, thus providing a short and combinatorial proof of the corresponding pointwise ergodic theorem.
We develop in this paper some general techniques to analyze action sets of small doubling for probability measure-preserving actions of amenable groups. As an application of these techniques, we prove a dynamical generalization of Kneser's celebrated density theorem for subsets in $(\bZ,+)$, valid for any countable amenable group, and we show how it can be used to establish a plethora of new inverse product set theorems for upper and lower asymptotic densities. We provide several examples demonstrating that our results are optimal for the settings under study.
In this paper we study unimodular amenable groups. The first part is devoted to results on the existence of uniform families of epsilon-quasi tilings for these groups. In this context, constructions of Ornstein and Weiss are extended by quantitative estimates for the covering properties of the corresponding decompositions. Afterwards, we apply the developed methods to obtain an abstract ergodic theorem for a class of functions mapping subsets of a countable, amenable group into some Banach space. This significantly extends and complements the previous results of Lenz, Müller, Schwarzenberger a…
Given any amenable group $G$ (with a left Haar measure $|\cdot|$ or $dg$), we can select out a \textit{Følner subnet} $\{F_θ,θ\inΘ\}$ from any left Følner net in $G$, which is \textit{$L^\infty$-admissible}, namely, for any Borel $G$-space $(X,\mathscr{X})$ and any $φ\in L^\infty(X,\mathscr{X})$, \begin{gather*} \lim_{θ\inΘ}\frac{1}{|F_θ|}\int_{F_θ}φ(gx)dg=φ^*(x)\ \forall x\in X\quad {\textrm{and}}\quad φ^*=(gφ)^*\ \forall g\in G. \end{gather*} Moreover, if $G$ is $σ$-compact such as a locally compact second countable Hausdorff amenable group, then $φ^*\in L^\infty(X,\mathscr{X})$, $φ^*(gx)=φ^…
It is shown that the cubic nonconventional ergodic average of order 2 with Möbius and Liouville weight converge almost surely to zero. As a consequence, we obtain that the Cesàro mean of the self-correlations and some moving average of the self-correlations of Möbius and Liouville functions converge to zero.
We prove a ratio ergodic theorem for amenable equivalence relations satisfying a strong form of the Besicovich covering property. We then use this result to study general non-singular actions of non-abelian free groups and establish a ratio ergodic theorem for averages along horospheres.
We consider random fields indexed by finite subsets of an amenable discrete group, taking values in the Banach-space of bounded right-continuous functions. The field is assumed to be equivariant, local, coordinate-wise monotone, and almost additive, with finite range dependence. Using the theory of quasi-tilings we prove an uniform ergodic theorem, more precisely, that averages along a Foelner sequence converge uniformly to a limiting function. Moreover we give explicit error estimates for the approximation in the sup norm.
Let $G$ be an amenable discrete countable infinite group, $A$ a finite set, and $(μ_g)_{g\in G}$ a family of probability measures on $A$ such that $\inf_{g\in G}\min_{a\in A}μ_g(a)>0$. It is shown (among other results) that if the Bernoulli shiftwise action of $G$ on the infinite product space $\bigotimes_{g\in G}(A,μ_g)$ is nonsingular and conservative then it is weakly mixing. This answers in positive a question by Z.~Kosloff who proved recently that the conservative Bernoulli $\Bbb Z^d$-actions are ergodic. As a byproduct, we prove a weak version of the pointwise ratio ergodic theorem for n…
We study the limiting behavior of multiple ergodic averages involving several not necessarily commuting measure preserving transformations. We work on two types of averages, one that uses iterates along combinatorial parallelepipeds, and another that uses iterates along shifted polynomials. We prove pointwise convergence in both cases, thus answering a question of I.Assani in the former case, and extending results of B.Host-B.Kra and A.Leibman in the latter case. Our argument is based on some elementary uniformity estimates of general bounded sequences, decomposition results in ergodic theory,…
Recall Jones-Schmidt theorem that an ergodic measured equivalence relation is strongly ergodic if and only if it has no nontrivial amenable quotient. We give two new characterizations of strong ergodicity, in terms of metric-measured spaces. The first one identifies strong ergodicity with the concentration property as defined, in this (foliation) setting, by Gromov \cite{Gromov00_SQ}. The second one characterize the existence of nontrivial amenable quotients in terms of "Følner sequences" in graphings naturally associated to (the leaf space of) the equivalence relation. We also present a forma…
In this paper we prove a general convergence theorem for almost-additive set functions on unimodular, amenable groups. These mappings take their values in some Banach space. By extending the theory of epsilon-quasi tiling techniques, we set the ground for far-reaching applications in the theory of group dynamics. In particular, we verify the almost-everywhere convergence of abstract approximable bounded, additive processes, as well as a Banach space approximation result for the spectral distribution function (integrated density of states) for random operators on discrete structures in a metric…
Let $(X,μ)$ be a probability space, $G$ a countable amenable group and $(F_n)_n$ a left Følner sequence in $G$. This paper analyzes the non-conventional ergodic averages \[\frac{1}{|F_n|}\sum_{g \in F_n}\prod_{i=1}^d (f_i\circ T_1^g\cdots T_i^g)\] associated to a commuting tuple of $μ$-preserving actions $T_1$, ..., $T_d:G\curvearrowright X$ and $f_1$, ..., $f_d \in L^\infty(μ)$. We prove that these averages always converge in $\|\cdot\|_2$, and that they witness a multiple recurrence phenomenon when $f_1 = \ldots = f_d = 1_A$ for a non-negligible set $A\subseteq X$. This proves a conjecture o…
We prove that a generic p.m.p. action of a countable amenable group $G$ has scaling entropy that can not be dominated by a given rate of growth. As a corollary, we obtain that there does not exist a topological action of $G$ for which the set of ergodic invariant measures coincides with the set of all ergodic p.m.p. $G$-systems of entropy zero. We also prove that a generic action of a residually finite amenable group has scaling entropy that can not be bounded from below by a given sequence. We also show an example of an amenable group that has such lower bound for every free p.m.p. action.
The principal results proved in this expository thesis are the IP polynomial Szemerédi theorem for nilpotent groups and the multiple term return times theorem with nilsequence weights. It also contains extensions of the convergence theorem for nilpotent polynomial multiple ergodic averages and the return times theorem to locally compact second countable amenable groups.
The goals of this paper are twofold. First, we generalize the result of Gaboriau and Lyons [GL07] to the setting of von Neumann's problem for equivalence relations, proving that for any non-amenable ergodic probability measure preserving (pmp) equivalence relation $\mathcal{R}$, the Bernoulli extension over a non-atomic base space $(K, κ)$ contains the orbit equivalence relation of a free ergodic pmp action of $\mathbb{F}_2$. Moreover, we provide conditions which imply that this holds for any non-trivial probability space $K$. Second, we use this result to prove that any non-amenable unimodula…
Since the work of Ornstein and Weiss in 1987 (J. Analyse Math. 48 (1987)) it has been understood that the natural category for classical ergodic theory would be probability measure preserving actions of discrete amenable groups. A conclusion of this work is that all such actions on nonatomic Lebesgue probability spaces were orbit equivalent. From this foundation two broad developements have been built. First, a full generalization of the various equivalence theories, including Ornstein's isomorphism theorem itself, exists. Second, one can use the characterization of discrete amenable actions a…
We investigate the connection between the abelian rank of a countable amenable group and the existence of good averaging sequences (e.g. for the pointwise ergodic theorem). We show that if $G$ is a group of abelian rank $r(G)$ then any Tempel'man sequence must have constant at least $2^{r(G)}$ and if $G$ is abelian this constant is achieved. On the other hand, infinite rank excludes the existence of Tempel'man sequences and forces all tempered sequences to grow super-exponentially.
We study mean ergodicity in amenable operator semigroups and establish the connection to the convergence of strong and weak ergodic nets. We then use these results in order to show the convergence of uniform families of ergodic nets that appear in topological Wiener-Wintner theorems.
We construct inner amenable and ICC groups having no ergodic, free, probability-measure-preserving and stable action. This solves a problem posed by Jones-Schmidt in 1987.
For a countable amenable group $G$ and a fixed dimension $m\geq 1$, we investigate when it is possible to embed a $G$-space $X$ into the $m$-dimensional cubical shift $([0,1]^m)^G$. We focus our attention on systems that arise as an extension of an almost finite $G$-action on a totally disconnected space $Y$, in the sense of Matui and Kerr. We show that if such a $G$-space $X$ has mean dimension less than $m/2$, then $X$ embeds into the $(m+1)$-dimensional cubical shift. If the distinguished factor $G$-space $Y$ is assumed to be a subshift of finite type, then this can be improved to an embedd…
Let $G$ be a countable discrete amenable group which acts continuously on a compact metric space $X$ and let $μ$ be an ergodic $G-$invariant Borel probability measure on $X$. For a fixed tempered Følner sequence $\{F_n\}$ in $G$ with $\lim\limits_{n\rightarrow+\infty}\frac{|F_n|}{\log n}=\infty$, we prove the following variational principle: $$h^B(G_μ,\{F_n\})=h_μ(X,G),$$ where $G_μ$ is the set of generic points for $μ$ with respect to $\{F_n\}$ and $h^B(G_μ,\{F_n\})$ is the Bowen topological entropy (along $\{F_n\}$) on $G_μ$. This generalizes the classical result of Bowen in 1973.
We introduce a new isomorphism-invariant notion of entropy for measure preserving actions of arbitrary countable groups on probability spaces, which we call orbital Rokhlin entropy. It employs Danilenko's orbital approach to entropy of a partition, and is motivated by Seward's recent generalization of Rokhlin entropy from amenable to general groups. A key ingredient in our approach is the use of an auxiliary probability-measure-preserving hyperfinite equivalence relation. Under the assumption of ergodicity of the auxiliary equivalence relation, our main result is a Shannon-McMillan-Breiman poi…
We study properties of the Weyl pseudometric associated with an action of a countable amenable group on a compact metric space. We prove that the topological entropy and the number of minimal subsets of the closure of an orbit are both lower semicontinuous with respect to the Weyl pseudometric. Furthermore, the simplex of invariant measures supported on the orbit closure varies continuously. We apply the Weyl pseudometric to Toeplitz sequences for amenable residually finite groups. We introduce the notion of a regular Toeplitz sequence for an arbitrary amenable residually finite group and demo…
A classical result of Halmos asserts that among measure preserving transformations the weak mixing property is generic. We extend Halmos' result to the collection of ergodic extensions of a fixed, but arbitrary, ergodic transformation $T_0$. We then use a result of Connes, Feldman and Weiss to extend this relative theorem to the general (countable) amenable group.
We construct a minimal topological action $\wp$ of a non-amenable group on a Cantor set $C$, which is non-uniquely ergodic and furthermore there exist ergodic invariant measures $μ_1$ and $μ_2$ such that $(\wp,C,μ_1)$ and $(\wp,C,μ_2)$ are not orbit equivalent measurable equivalence relations.