Rigidity Theorems For Actions Of Product Groups And Countable Borel Equivalence Relations

This memoir is both a contribution to the theory of Borel equivalence relations, considered up to Borel reducibility, and measure preserving group actions considered up to orbit equivalence. Here $E$ is said to be Borel reducible to $F$ if there is a Borel function $f$ with $x E y$ if and only if $f(x) F f(y)$. Moreover, $E$ is orbit equivalent to $F$ if the respective measure spaces equipped with the extra structure provided by the equivalence relations are almost everywhere isomorphic. We consider product groups acting ergodically and by measure preserving transformations on standard Borel probability spaces.In general terms, the basic parts of the monograph show that if the groups involved have a suitable notion of 'boundary' (we make this precise with the definition of near hyperbolic), then one orbit equivalence relation can only be Borel reduced to another if there is some kind of algebraic resemblance between the product groups and coupling of the action. This also has consequence for orbit equivalence. In the case that the original equivalence relations do not have non-trivial almost invariant sets, the techniques lead to relative ergodicity results. An equivalence relation $E$ is said to be relatively ergodic to $F$ if any $f$ with $xEy \Rightarrow f(x) F f(y)$ has $[f(x)]_F$ constant almost everywhere.This underlying collection of lemmas and structural theorems is employed in a number of different ways. In the later parts of the paper, we give applications of the theory to specific cases of product groups. In particular, we catalog the actions of products of the free group and obtain additional rigidity theorems and relative ergodicity results in this context. There is a rather long series of appendices, whose primary goal is to give the reader a comprehensive account of the basic techniques. But included here are also some new results. For instance, we show that the Furstenberg-Zimmer lemma on cocycles from amenable groups fails with respect to Baire category, and use this to answer a question of Weiss. We also present a different proof that $F_2$ has the Haagerup approximation property.

This Memoir is both a contribution to the theory of Borel equivalence relations, considered up to Borel reducibility, and measure preserving group actions considered up to orbit equivalence. Here $E$ is said to be Borel reducible to $F$ if there is a Borel function $f$ with $x E y$ if and only if $f(x) F f(y)$. Moreover, $E$ is orbit equivalent to $F$ if the respective measure spaces equipped with the extra structure provided by the equivalence relations are almost everywhere isomorphic. We consider product groups acting ergodically and by measure preserving transformations on standard Borel probability spaces. In general terms, the basic parts of the monograph show that if the groups involved have a suitable notion of ``boundary'' (we make this precise with the definition of near hyperbolic), then one orbit equivalence relation can only be Borel reduced to another if there is some kind of algebraic resemblance between the product groups and coupling of the action. This also has consequence for orbit equivalence. In the case that the original equivalence relations do not have non-trivial almost invariant sets, the techniques lead to relative ergodicity results. An equivalence relation $E$ is said to be relatively ergodic to $F$ if any $f$ with $xEy \Rightarrow f(x) F f(y)$ has $[f(x)]_F$ constant almost everywhere. This underlying collection of lemmas and structural theorems is employed in a number of different ways. In the later parts of the paper we give applications of the theory to specific cases of product groups. In particular, we catalog the actions of products of the free group and obtain additional rigidity theorems and relative ergodicity results in this context. There is a rather long series of appendices, whose primary goal is to give the reader a comprehensive account of the basic techniques. But included here are also some new results. For instance, we show that the Furstenberg-Zimmer lemma on cocycles from amenable groups fails with respect to Baire category, and use this to answer a question of Weiss. We also present a different proof that $F_2$ has the Haagerup approximation property.

This memoir is both a contribution to the theory of Borel equivalence relations, considered up to Borel reducibility, and measure preserving group actions considered up to orbit equivalence. Here $E$ is said to be Borel reducible to $F$ if there is a Borel function $f$ with $x E y$ if and only if $f(x) F f(y)$. Moreover, $E$ is orbit equivalent to $F$ if the respective measure spaces equipped with the extra structure provided by the equivalence relations are almost everywhere isomorphic. We consider product groups acting ergodically and by measure preserving transformations on standard Borel probability spaces.In general terms, the basic parts of the monograph show that if the groups involved have a suitable notion of 'boundary' (we make this precise with the definition of near hyperbolic), then one orbit equivalence relation can only be Borel reduced to another if there is some kind of algebraic resemblance between the product groups and coupling of the action. This also has consequence for orbit equivalence. In the case that the original equivalence relations do not have non-trivial almost invariant sets, the techniques lead to relative ergodicity results. An equivalence relation $E$ is said to be relatively ergodic to $F$ if any $f$ with $xEy \Rightarrow f(x) F f(y)$ has $[f(x)]_F$ constant almost everywhere.This underlying collection of lemmas and structural theorems is employed in a number of different ways. In the later parts of the paper, we give applications of the theory to specific cases of product groups. In particular, we catalog the actions of products of the free group and obtain additional rigidity theorems and relative ergodicity results in this context. There is a rather long series of appendices, whose primary goal is to give the reader a comprehensive account of the basic techniques. But included here are also some new results. For instance, we show that the Furstenberg-Zimmer lemma on cocycles from amenable groups fails with respect to Baire category, and use this to answer a question of Weiss. We also present a different proof that $F_2$ has the Haagerup approximation property.

"Over the last 20 years, the theory of Borel equivalence relations and related topics have been very active areas of research in set theory and have important interactions with other fields of mathematics, like ergodic theory and topological dynamics, group theory, combinatorics, functional analysis, and model theory. The book presents, for the first time in mathematical literature, all major aspects of this theory and its applications."--BOOK JACKET.

Numbers imitate space, which is of such a di?erent nature —Blaise Pascal It is fair to date the study of the foundation of mathematics back to the ancient Greeks. The urge to understand and systematize the mathematics of the time led Euclid to postulate axioms in an early attempt to put geometry on a ?rm footing. With roots in the Elements, the distinctive methodology of mathematics has become proof. Inevitably two questions arise: What are proofs? and What assumptions are proofs based on? The ?rst question, traditionally an internal question of the ?eld of logic, was also wrestled with in antiquity. Aristotle gave his famous syllogistic s- tems, and the Stoics had a nascent propositional logic. This study continued with ?ts and starts, through Boethius, the Arabs and the medieval logicians in Paris and London. The early germs of logic emerged in the context of philosophy and theology. The development of analytic geometry, as exempli?ed by Descartes, ill- tratedoneofthedi?cultiesinherentinfoundingmathematics. Itisclassically phrased as the question ofhow one reconciles the arithmetic with the geom- ric. Arenumbers onetypeofthingand geometricobjectsanother? Whatare the relationships between these two types of objects? How can they interact? Discovery of new types of mathematical objects, such as imaginary numbers and, much later, formal objects such as free groups and formal power series make the problem of ?nding a common playing ?eld for all of mathematics importunate. Several pressures made foundational issues urgent in the 19th century.

A study of ergodic, measure preserving actions of countable discrete groups on standard probability spaces. It explores a direction that emphasizes a global point of view, concentrating on the structure of the space of measure preserving actions of a given group and its associated cocycle spaces.

Presents Results from a Very Active Area of ResearchExploring an active area of mathematics that studies the complexity of equivalence relations and classification problems, Invariant Descriptive Set Theory presents an introduction to the basic concepts, methods, and results of this theory. It brings together techniques from various areas of mathem

The author obtains some classification result for the mapping class groups of compact orientable surfaces in terms of measure equivalence. In particular, the mapping class groups of different closed surfaces cannot be measure equivalent. Moreover, the author gives various examples of discrete groups which are not measure equivalent to the mapping class groups. In the course of the proof, the author investigates amenability in a measurable sense for the actions of the mapping class group on the boundary at infinity of the curve complex and on the Thurston boundary and, using this investigation, proves that the mapping class group of a compact orientable surface is exact.