Consider homogeneous G/H and G/F, for an S-algebraic group G. A lattice Γ acts on the left strictly conservatively. The following rigidity results are obtained: morphisms, factors and joinings defined apriori only in the measurable category are in fact algebraically constrained. Arguing in an elementary fashion we manage to classify all the measurable Φ commuting with the Γ-action: assuming ergodicity, we find they are algebraically defined.
We show local and cocycle rigidity for $\R^k \times \Z^l$ partially hyperbolic translation actions on homogeneous spaces $\mc G/ Λ$. We consider a large class of actions whose geometric properties are more complicated than previously treated cases. It is also the first time that partially hyperbolic twisted symmetric space examples have been treated in the literature. The main new ingredient in the proof is a combination of geometric method and the theory of central extensions.
We classify locally finite joinings with respect to the Burger-Roblin measure for the action of a horospherical subgroup $U$ on $Γ\backslash G$, where $G = \operatorname{SO}(n,1)^\circ$ and $Γ$ is a convex cocompact and Zariski dense subgroup of $G$, or geometrically finite with restrictions on critical exponent and rank of cusps. We also prove in the more general case of $Γ$ geometrically finite and Zariski dense that certain $U$-equivariant set-valued maps are rigid.
We consider the problems of measurable isomorphisms and joinings, measurable centralizers and quotients for certain classes of ergodic group actions on infinite measure spaces. Our main focus is on systems of algebraic origin: actions of lattices and other discrete subgroups on homogeneous spaces G/H where H is a sufficiently rich unimodular subgroup in a semi-simple group G. We also consider actions of discrete subgroups of isometries Isom(X) of a pinched negative curvature space X, acting on the space of horospheres Hor(X). For such systems we prove that the only measurable isomorphisms, joi…
We classify measures on a homogeneous space which are invariant under a certain solvable subgroup and ergodic under its unipotent radical. Our treatment is independent of characteristic. As a result we get the first measure classification for the action of semisimple subgroups without any characteristic restriction.
We give a criterion for the rigidity of actions on homogeneous spaces. Let $G$ be a real Lie group, $Λ$ a lattice in $G$, and $Γ$ a subgroup of the affine group Aff$(G)$ stabilizing $Λ$. Then the action of $Γ$ on $G/Λ$ has the rigidity property in the sense of S. Popa, if and only if the induced action of $Γ$ on $\mathbb{P}(\frak{g})$ admits no $Γ$-invariant probability measure, where $\frak{g}$ is the Lie algebra of $G$. This generalizes results of M. Burger, and A. Ioana and Y. Shalom. As an application, we establish rigidity for the action of a class of groups acting by automorphisms on nil…
Actions of a locally compact group G on a measure space X give rise to unitary representations of G on Hilbert spaces. We review results on the rigidity of these actions from the spectral point of view, that is, results about the existence of a spectral gap for associated averaging operators and their consequences. We will deal both with spaces X with an infinite measure as well as with spaces with an invariant probability measure. The spectral gap property has several striking applications to group theory, geometry, ergodic theory, operator algebras, graph theory, theoretical computer science…
We extend the recent progress on the cocycle rigidity of partially hyperbolic homogeneous abelian actions to the setting with rank 1 factors in the universal cover. The method of proof relies on the periodic cycle functional and analysis of the cycle structure, but uses a new argument to give vanishing.
We consider partially hyperbolic abelian algebraic high-rank actions on compact homogeneous spaces obtained from simple indefinite orthogonal and unitary groups. In the first part of the paper, we show local differentiable rigidity for such actions. The conclusions are based on progress towards computations of the Schur multipliers of these non-split groups, which is the main aim of the second part.
We study invariant probability measures on the homogeneous space $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb R)/\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb Z)$ for the action of subgroups of $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb R)$ of the form $SF$ where $F$ is generated by one parameter unipotent groups and $S$ is a one parameter $\mathbb R$-diagonalizable group normalizing $F$. Under the assumption that $S$ contains an element with only one eigenvalue less than one (counted with multiplicity) and others bigger than one we prove that all the $SF$ invariant and ergodic probability measures on $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb R)/\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb Z)$ are h…
We prove the locally differentiable rigidity of generic partially hyperbolic abelian algebraic high-rank actions on compact homogeneous spaces obtained from split symplectic Lie groups. We also gave a non-generic action rigidity example on compact homogeneous spaces obtained from SL(2n,R) or SL(2n,C). The conclusions are based on geometric Katok-Damjanovic way and progress towards computations of the generating relations in these groups.
We study Popa's notion of rigidity for equivalence relations induced by actions on homogeneous spaces. For any lattices $Γ,Λ$ in a semisimple Lie group $G$ with finite center and no compact factors we prove that the action $Γ\curvearrowright G/Λ$ is rigid. If in addition $G$ has property (T) then we derive that the von Neumann algebra $L^{\infty}(G/Λ)\rtimesΓ$ has property (T). We also show that if the adjoint action of $G$ on the Lie algebra of $G$ - $\{0\}$ is amenable (e.g. if $G=SL_2(\Bbb R)$), then any ergodic subequivalence relation of the orbit equivalence relation of the action $Γ\curv…
This article discusses two recent works by the author, one with Brown and Hurtado on Zimmer's conjecture and one with Bader, Miller and Stover on totally geodesic submanifolds of real and complex hyperbolic manifolds. The main purpose of juxtaposing these two very disparate sets of results in one article is to emphasize a common aspect: that the study of invariant and partially invariant measures outside the homogeneous setting is important to questions about rigidity in geometry and dynamics. I will also discuss some open questions including some that seem particularly compelling in light of …
We investigate analogues of some of the classical results in homogeneous dynamics in non-linear setting. Let $G$ be a closed subgroup of the group of automorphisms of a biregular tree and $Γ<G$ a discrete subgroup. For a large class of groups $G$ we give a classification of probability measures on $G/Γ$ invariant under horospherical subgroups. When $Γ$ is a cocompact lattice, we prove unique ergodicity of the horospherical action. We prove Hedlund's theorem for geometrically finite quotients. Finally, we study equidistribution of large compact orbits.
We show a geometric rigidity of isometric actions of non compact (semisimple) Lie groups on Lorentz manifolds. Namely, we show that the manifold has a warped product structure of a Lorentz manifold with constant curvature by a Riemannian manifold.
We prove measure rigidity for the action of (maximal) horospherical subgroups on homogeneous spaces obtained by quotient by a uniform (nonuniform) arithmetic lattices over a field of positive characteristic.
We define globally hypoelliptic smooth $\mathbb R^k$ actions as actions whose leafwise Laplacian along the orbit foliation is a globally hypoelliptic differential operator. When $k=1$, strong global rigidity is conjectured for such actions by Greenfield-Wallach and Katok: every such action is smoothly conjugate to a Diophantine flow on the torus. The conjecture has been confirmed for all homogeneous flows on homogeneous spaces \cite{FFRH}. In this paper we conjecture that among homogeneous $\mathbb R^k$ actions ($k\ge 2$) on homogeneous spaces globally hypoelliptic actions exist only on nilman…
This paper proves that there are no compact forms for a large class of homogeneous spaces admitting actions by higher-rank semisimple Lie groups. It builds on Zimmer's approach for studying such spaces using cocycle superrigidity. The proof involves cocycle superrigidity, measure rigidity for unipotent flows, techniques from partially hyperbolic dynamics, and the geometry and pseudo-Riemannian structure of the homogeneous space.
Consider an homogeneous space under a locally compact group G and a lattice in G. Then the lattice naturally acts on the homogeneous space. Looking at a dense orbit, one may wonder how to describe its repartition. One then adopt a dynamical point of view and compare the asymptotic distribution of points in the orbits with the natural measure on the space. In the setting of Lie groups and their homogeneous spaces, several results showed an equidistribution of points in the orbits using Ratner's rigidity of polynomial dynamics in homogeneous spaces. We address here this problem in the setting of…
We prove results towards the equidistribution of certain families of periodic torus orbits on homogeneous spaces, with particular focus on the case of the diagonal torus acting on quotients of $\PGL_n(\R)$. After attaching to each periodic orbit an integral invariant (the discriminant) our results have the following flavour: certain standard conjectures about the distribution of such orbits hold up to exceptional sets of at most $O(Δ^ε)$ orbits of discriminant $\leq Δ$. The proof relies on the well-separatedness of periodic orbits together with measure rigidity for torus actions. We also give …
We study equivalence relations that arise from translation actions $Γ\curvearrowright G$ which are associated to dense embeddings $Γ<G$ of countable groups into second countable locally compact groups. Assuming that $G$ is simply connected and the action $Γ\curvearrowright G$ is strongly ergodic, we prove that $Γ\curvearrowright G$ is orbit equivalent to another such translation action $Λ\curvearrowright H$ if and only if there exists an isomorphism $δ:G\rightarrow H$ such that $δ(Γ)=Λ$. If $G$ is moreover a real algebraic group, then we establish analogous rigidity results for the translation…
We prove several cases of Zimmer's conjecture for actions of higher-rank cocompact lattices on low dimensional manifolds. For example, if $Γ$ is a cocompact lattice in $\mathrm{Sl}(n, \mathbb R)$, $M$ is a compact manifold, and $ω$ a volume form on $M$ we show that any homomorphism $ρ\colon Γ\rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}(M)$ has finite image if the dimension of $M$ is less than $n-1$ and that any homomorphism $ρ\colon Γ\rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}(M,ω)$ has finite image if the dimension of $M$ is less than $n$. The key step in the proof is to show any such action has uniform subexponential growth of …
