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 as those which are orbit equivalent to a action of \Z to lift theorems from actions of \Z to those of arbitrary amenable groups.
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 initiate a quantitative study of measure equivalence (and orbit equivalence) between finitely generated groups, which extends the classical setting of $\mathrm L^p$ measure equivalence. In this paper, our main focus will be on amenable groups, for which we prove both rigidity and flexibility results. On the rigidity side, we prove a general monotonicity property satisfied by the isoperimetric profile, which implies in particular its invariance under $\mathrm L^1$ measure equivalence. This yields explicit "lower bounds" on how integrable a measure coupling between two amenable groups can be.…
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…
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…
In this paper we introduce the notion of scale pressure and measure theoretic scale pressure for amenable group actions. A variational principle for amenable group actions is presented. We also describe these quantities by pseudo-orbits. Moreover, we prove that if $G$ is a finitely generated countable discrete amenable group, then the scale pressure of $G$ coincides with the scale pressure of $G$ with respect to pseudo-orbits.
Consider a countable amenable group acting by homeomorphisms on a compact metrizable space. Chung and Li asked if expansiveness and positive entropy of the action imply existence of an off-diagonal asymptotic pair. For algebraic actions of polycyclic-by-finite groups, Chung and Li proved it does. We provide examples showing that Chung and Li's result is near-optimal in the sense that the conclusion fails for some non-algebraic action generated by a single homeomorphism, and for some algebraic actions of non-finitely generated abelian groups. On the other hand, we prove that every expansive act…
In previous work, I introduced a measure-conjugacy invariant for sofic group actions called sofic entropy. Here it is proven that the sofic entropy of an amenable group action equals its classical entropy. The proof uses a new measure-conjugacy invariant called upper-sofic entropy and a theorem of Rudolph and Weiss for the entropy of orbit-equivalent actions relative to the orbit change $σ$-algebra.
The concept of (stable) weak containment for measure-preserving actions of a countable group $Γ$ is analogous to the classical notion of (stable) weak containment of unitary representations. If $Γ$ is amenable then the Rokhlin lemma shows that all essentially free actions are weakly equivalent. However if $Γ$ is non-amenable then there can be many different weak and stable weak equivalence classes. Our main result is that the set of stable weak equivalence classes naturally admits the structure of a Choquet simplex. For example, when $Γ=\mathbb{Z}$ this simplex has only a countable set of extr…
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.
For finitely generated groups, amenability and Følner properties are equivalent. However, contrary to a widespread idea, Kaimanovich showed that Følner condition does not imply amenability for discrete measured equivalence relations. In this paper, we exhibit two examples of $C^\infty$ foliations of closed manifolds that are Følner and non amenable with respect to a finite transverse invariant measure and a transverse invariant volume, respectively. We also prove the equivalence between the two notions when the foliation is minimal, that is all the leaves are dense, giving a positive answer to…
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…
We introduce inner amenability for discrete p.m.p. groupoids and investigate its basic properties, examples, and the connection with central sequences in the full group of the groupoid or central sequences in the von Neumann algebra associated with the groupoid. Among other things, we show that every free ergodic p.m.p. compact action of an inner amenable group gives rise to an inner amenable orbit equivalence relation. We also obtain an analogous result for compact extensions of equivalence relations which either are stable or have a non-trivial central sequence in their full group.
Building on work of Popa, Ioana, and Epstein--Törnquist, we show that, for every nonamenable countable discrete group $Γ$, the relations of conjugacy, orbit equivalence, and von Neumann equivalence of free ergodic (or weak mixing) measure preserving actions of $Γ$ on the standard atomless probability space are not Borel, thus answering questions of Kechris. This is an optimal and definitive result, which establishes a neat dichotomy with the amenable case, since any two free ergodic actions of an amenable group on the standard atomless probability space are orbit equivalent by classical result…
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…
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…
A measure-preserving action of a discrete countable group on a standard probability space is called stable if the associated equivalence relation is isomorphic to its direct product with the ergodic hyperfinite equivalence relation of type II_1. We show that any Baumslag-Solitar group has such an ergodic, free and stable action. It follows that any Baumslag-Solitar group is measure equivalent to its direct product with any amenable group. The same property is obtained for the inner amenable groups of Vaes.
We study amenable minimal Cantor systems of free groups arising from the diagonal actions of the boundary actions and certain Cantor systems. It is shown that every virtually free group admits continuously many amenable minimal Cantor systems whose crossed products are mutually non-isomorphic Kirchberg algebras in the UCT class (with explicitly determined K-theory). The technique developed in our study also enables us to compute the K-theory of certain amenable minimal Cantor systems. We apply it to the diagonal actions of the boundary actions and the products of the odometer transformations, …
We show the equivalence of several amenability type conditions for C*-dynamical systems. As an application, based on the Pimsner--Meyer construction, we give a new method to produce amenable actions on simple C*-algebras.
We say that two free probability-measure-preserving actions of countable groups are Shannon orbit equivalent if there is an orbit equivalence between them whose associated cocycle partitions have finite Shannon entropy. We show that if the acting groups are sofic and each has a w-normal amenable subgroup which is neither locally finite nor virtually cyclic then Shannon orbit equivalence implies that the actions have the same maximum sofic entropy. This extends a result of Austin beyond the finitely generated amenable setting and has the consequence that two Bernoulli actions of a group with th…
We single out a large class of groups ${\mathscr{M}}$ for which the following unique prime factorization result holds: if $Γ_1,\dots,Γ_n\in {\mathscr{M}}$ and $Γ_1\times\dots\timesΓ_n$ is measure equivalent to a product $Λ_1\times\dots\timesΛ_m$ of infinite icc groups, then $n \ge m$, and if $n = m$ then, after permutation of the indices, $Γ_i$ is measure equivalent to $Λ_i$, for all $1\leq i\leq n$. This provides an analogue of Monod and Shalom's theorem \cite{MS02} for groups that belong to ${\mathscr{M}}$. Class ${\mathscr{M}}$ is constructed using groups whose von Neumann algebras admit an…
In this paper, we study the descriptive set theoretic complexity of the equivalence relation of conjugacy of Toeplitz subshifts of a residually finite group $G$. On the one hand, we show that if $G = \mathbb{Z}$, then topological conjugacy on Toeplitz subshifts with separated holes is amenable. In contrast, if $G$ is non-amenable, then conjugacy of Toeplitz $G$-subshifts is a non-amenable equivalence relation. The results were motivated by a general question, asked by Gao, Jackson and Seward, about the complexity of conjugacy for minimal, free subshifts of countable groups.
We formulate and prove a very general relative version of the Dobrushin-Lanford-Ruelle theorem which gives conditions on constraints of configuration spaces over a finite alphabet such that for every absolutely summable relative interaction, every translation-invariant relative Gibbs measure is a relative equilibrium measure and vice versa. Neither implication is true without some assumption on the space of configurations. We note that the usual finite type condition can be relaxed to a much more general class of constraints. By "relative" we mean that both the interaction and the set of allow…
We show that for every metrizable Choquet simplex $K$ and for every group $G$, which is infinite, countable, amenable and residually finite, there exists a Toeplitz $G$-subshift whose set of shift-invariant probability measures is affine homeomorphic to $K$. Furthermore, we get that for every integer $d\geq 1$ and every Toeplitz flow $(X,T)$, there exists a Toeplitz ${\mathbb Z}^d$-subshift which is topologically orbit equivalent to $(X,T)$.
The $f$-invariant is a notion of entropy for probability-measure-preserving actions of free groups. We show it is invariant under bounded orbit-equivalence.
It is proven that the orbit-equivalence class of any essentially free probability-measure-preserving action of a free group $G$ is weakly dense in the space of actions of $G$.
Given a countable amenable group G and 0 < L < 1, we give an elementary construction of a type-III:L Bernoulli group action. In the case where G is the integers, we show that our nonsingular Bernoulli shifts have independent and identically distributed factors.
In this paper we study topological rigidity of affine actions on compact connected metrizable abelian groups. We also classify one-parameter flows of translations upto orbit equivalence and discrete group actions by translations upto topological conjugacy.
We show that every minimal action of any finitely generated abelian group on the Cantor set is (topologically) orbit equivalent to an AF relation. As a consequence, this extends the classification up to orbit equivalence of minimal dynamical systems on the Cantor set to include AF relations and Z^d-actions.
The aim of this paper is to study growth properties of group extensions of hyperbolic dynamical systems, where we do not assume that the extension satisfies the symmetry conditions seen, for example, in the work of Stadlbauer on symmetric group extensions and of the authors on geodesic flows. Our main application is to growth rates of periodic orbits for covers of an Anosov flow: we reduce the problem of counting periodic orbits in an amenable cover $X$ to counting in a maximal abelian subcover $X^{\mathrm{ab}}$. In this way, we obtain an equivalence for the Gurevič entropy: $h(X)=h(X^{\mathrm…
We give a new proof of a theorem of Giordano, Putnam and Skau characterizing orbit equivalence of minimal homeomorphisms of the Cantor space in terms of their sets of invariant Borel probability measures. The proof is based on a strengtehning of a theorem of Krieger concerning minimal actions of certain locally finite groups of homeomorphisms, and we also give a new proof of the Giordano--Putnam--Skau characterization of orbit equivalence for these actions.
It is shown that $2β_1(\G)\leq h(\G)$ for any countable group $\G$, where $β_1(\G)$ is the first $\ell^2$-Betti number and $h(\G)$ the uniform isoperimetric constant. In particular, a countable group with non-vanishing first $\ell^2$-Betti number is uniformly non-amenable. We then define isoperimetric constants in the framework of measured equivalence relations. For an ergodic measured equivalence relation $R$ of type $\IIi$, the uniform isoperimetric constant $h(R)$ of $R$ is invariant under orbit equivalence and satisfies $$ 2β_1(R)\leq 2C(R)-2\leq h(R), $$ where $β_1(\R)$ is the first $\ell…
We study the existence of minimal dynamical systems, their orbit and minimal orbit-breaking equivalence relations, and their applications to C*-algebras and K-theory. We show that given any finite CW-complex there exists a space with the same K-theory and cohomology that admits a minimal homeomorphism. The proof relies on the existence of homeomorphisms on point-like spaces constructed by the authors in previous work, together with existence results for skew product systems due to Glasner and Weiss. To any minimal dynamical system one can associate minimal equivalence relations by breaking orb…
It is shown that the restriction of the action of any group with finite orbit on the minimal sets of dendrites is equicontinuous. Consequently, we obtain that the action of any amenable group and Thompson group on dendrite restricted on minimal sets is equicontinuous. We further provide a class of non-amenable groups whose action on dendrites has finite orbit. We extend also some of our results to dendron. We further give a characterization of the set of invariant probability measures and its extreme points.
Given an ergodic probability measure preserving dynamical system $\G\acts (X,μ)$, where $\G$ is a finitely generated countable group, we show that the asymptotic growth of the number of finite models for the dynamics, in the sense of sofic approximations, is an invariant of orbit equivalence. We then prove an additivity formula for free products with amenable (possibly trivial) amalgamation. In particular, we obtain purely combinatorial proofs of several results in orbit equivalence theory.
We show that every uniquely ergodic minimal Cantor system is topological orbit equivalent to the natural extension of a numeration scale associated to a logistic map.
Free Borel $\mathbb{R}^{d}$-flows are smoothly equivalent if there is a Borel bijection between the phase spaces that maps orbits onto orbits and is a $C^{\infty}$-smooth orientation preserving diffeomorphism between orbits. We show that all free non-tame Borel $\mathbb{R}^{d}$-flows are smoothly equivalent in every dimension $d \ge 2$. This answers a question of B. Miller and C. Rosendal.
We show that if a countable group $G$ is the free product of infinite abelian groups, then for every free, probability-measure-preserving (p.m.p.) action of $G$, its orbit equivalence class is weakly dense in the space of p.m.p. actions of $G$. This extends Lewis Bowen's result for free groups.
We are mainly interested here in Kazhdan's property T for measured equivalence relations. Among our main results are characterizations of strong ergodicity and Kazhdan's property in terms of the spectra of diffusion operators, associated to random walks and hilbertian representations of the underlying equivalence relation. The analog spectral characterization of property T for countable groups was proved recently by Gromov \cite{Gromov03} (and Ghys \cite{Ghys03}). Our proof put together the tools developed in the group case and further crucial technical steps from the study of amenable equival…
To an ergodic, essentially free and measure-preserving action of a non-amenable Baumslag-Solitar group on a standard probability space, a flow is associated. The isomorphism class of the flow is shown to be an invariant of such actions of Baumslag-Solitar groups under weak orbit equivalence. Results on groups which are measure equivalent to Baumslag-Solitar groups are also provided.
To any continuous eigenvalue of a Cantor minimal system $(X,\,T)$, we associate an element of the dimension group $K^0(X,\,T)$ associated to $(X,\,T)$. We introduce and study the concept of irrational miscibility of a dimension group. The main property of these dimension groups is the absence of irrational values in the additive group of continuous spectrum of their realizations by Cantor minimal systems. The strong orbit equivalence (respectively orbit equivalence) class of a Cantor minimal system associated to an irrationally miscible dimension group $(G,\,u)$ (resp. with trivial infinitesim…
Let $G$ and $H$ be infinite finitely generated amenable groups. This paper studies two notions of equivalence between actions of such groups on standard Borel probability spaces. They are defined as stable orbit equivalences in which the associated cocycles satisfy certain tail bounds. In `integrable stable orbit equivalence', the length in $H$ of the cocycle-image of an element of $G$ must have finite integral over its domain (a subset of the $G$-system), and similarly for the reverse cocycle. In `bounded stable orbit equivalence', these functions must be essentially bounded in terms of the l…
We show an invariance result for the L2-torsion of groups under uniform measure equivalence provided a measure-theoretic version of the determinant conjecture holds. The measure-theoretic determinant conjecture is discussed and, for instance, proved for Bernoulli actions of residually amenable groups.
Quasi-invariant measures for non-discrete groups of diffeomorphisms containing a Morse-Smale dynamics are studied. The assumption concerning the presence of a Morse-Smale dynamics allows us to extend to higher dimensions a number of recently established results for non-discrete groups acting on the circle. These results are also applied to show that, for many groups as above, every continuous orbit equivalence must coincide almost everywhere with a diffeomorphism of the corresponding manifold.
We study homeomorphisms of tiling spaces with finite local complexity (FLC), of which suspensions of $d$-dimensional subshifts are an example, and orbit equivalence of tiling spaces with (possibly) infinite local complexity (ILC). In the FLC case, we construct a cohomological invariant of homeomorphisms, and show that all homeomorphisms are a combination of tiling deformations, translations, and local equivalences (MLD). In the ILC case, we construct a cohomological invariant in the so-called weak cohomology, and show that all orbit equivalences are combinations of tiling deformations, transla…
We prove that if two free p.m.p. $\mathbb{Z}$-actions are Shannon orbit equivalent then they have the same entropy. The argument also applies more generally to yield the same conclusion for free p.m.p. actions of finitely generated virtually Abelian groups. Together with the isomorphism theorems of Ornstein and Ornstein-Weiss and the entropy invariance results of Austin and Kerr-Li in the non-virtually-cyclic setting, this shows that two Bernoulli actions of any non-locally-finite countably infinite amenable group are Shannon orbit equivalent if and only if they are measure conjugate. We also …
In this work, we study minimal equicontinuous actions which are locally quasi-analytic. The first main result shows that for minimal equicontinuous actions which are locally quasi-analytic, continuous orbit equivalence of the actions implies return equivalence. This generalizes results of Cortez and Medynets, and of Li. The second main result is that if G is a finitely-generated, virtually nilpotent group, then every minimal equicontinuous action by G is locally quasi-analytic. As an application, we show that the homeomorphism type of a nil-solenoid is determined by the virtual topological ful…
Kida and Tucker-Drob recently extended the notion of inner amenability from countable groups to discrete p.m.p. groupoids. In this article, we show that inner amenable groupoids have "fixed priced 1" in the sense that every principal extension of an inner amenable groupoid has cost 1. This simultaneously generalizes and unifies two well known results on cost from the literature, namely, (1) a theorem of Kechris stating that every ergodic p.m.p. equivalence relation admitting a nontrivial asymptotically central sequence in its full group has cost 1, and (2) a theorem of Tucker-Drob stating that…
This paper is concerned about the orbit equivalence types of $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms of $S^1$ seen as nonsingular automorphisms of $(S^1,m)$, where $m$ is the Lebesgue measure. Given any Liouville number $α$, it is shown that each of the subspace formed by type ${\rm II}_1$, ${\rm II}_\infty$, ${\rm III}_λ$ ($λ>1$), ${\rm III}_\infty$ and ${\rm III}_0$ diffeomorphisms are $C^\infty$-dense in the space of the orientation preserving $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms with rotation number $α$.
In the paper we throw the first light on studying systematically the local entropy theory for a countable discrete amenable group action. For such an action, we introduce entropy tuples in both topological and measure-theoretic settings and build the variational relation between these two kinds of entropy tuples by establishing a local variational principle for a given finite open cover. Moreover, based the idea of topological entropy pairs, we introduce and study two special classes of such an action: uniformly positive entropy and completely positive entropy. Note that in the building of the…
The paper is focused on the study of continuous orbit equivalence for generalized odometers (profinite actions). We show that two generalized odometers are continuously orbit equivalent if and only if the acting groups have finite index subgroups (having the same index) whose actions are piecewise conjugate. This result extends M.~Boyle's flip-conjugacy theorem originally established for $\mathbb Z$-actions. As a corollary we obtain a dynamical classification of the restricted isomorphism between generalized Bunce-Deddens $C^*$-algebras. We also show that the full group associated with a gener…
In this article, we give a quasi-final classification of quasiconformal Anosov flows. We deduce a very interesting differentable rigidity result for the orbit foliations of hyperbolic manifold of dimension at least three.
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.
