On spectra of Koopman, groupoid and quasi-regular representations

We study Koopman and quasi-regular representations corresponding to the action of arbitrary weakly branch group G on the boundary of a rooted tree T. One of the main results is that in the case of a quasi-invariant Bernoulli measure on the boundary of T the corresponding Koopman representation of G is irreducible (under some general conditions). We also show that quasi-regular representations of G corresponding to different orbits and Koopman representations corresponding to ...

We study the $C^*$-algebra $C^*(\kappa)$ generated by the Koopman representation $\kappa=\kappa^\mu$ of a locally compact groupoid $G$ acting on a measure space $(X,\mu)$, where $\mu$ is quasi-invariant for the action. We interpret $\kappa$ as an induced representation and we prove that if the groupoid $G\ltimes X$ is amenable, then $\kappa$ is weakly contained in the regular representation $\rho=\rho^\mu$ associated to $\mu$, so we have a surjective homomorphism $C^*_r(G)\to...

In a prior paper, the author generalized the classical factor theorem of Sinai to actions of arbitrary countably infinite groups. In the present paper, we use this theorem and the techniques of its proof in order to study connections between positive entropy phenomena and the Koopman representation. Following the line of work initiated by Hayes for sofic entropy, we show in a certain precise manner that all positive entropy must come from portions of the Koopman representatio...

Let $G$ be a countable group. We introduce several equivalence relations on the set ${\rm Sub}(G)$ of subgroups of $G$, defined by properties of the quasi-regular representations $\lambda_{G/H}$ associated to $H\in {\rm Sub}(G)$ and compare them to the relation of $G$-conjugacy of subgroups. We define a class ${\rm Sub}_{\rm sg}(G)$ of subgroups (these are subgroups with a certain spectral gap property) and show that they are rigid, in the sense that the equivalence class of ...

Let G be a locally compact second countable Abelian group. Given a measure preserving action T of G on a standard probability space, let M(T) denote the set of essential values of the spectral multiplicity function of the Koopman unitary representation of G associated with T. In the case when G is either a discrete countable Abelian group or R^n, n>0, it is shown that the sets of the form {p,q,pq}, {p,q,r,pq,pr,qr,pqr} etc. or any multiplicative (and additive) subsemigroup of...

We introduce a notion of measure contracting actions and show that Koopman representations corresponding to ergodic measure contracting actions are irreducible. As a corollary we obtain that Koopman representations associated to canonical actions of Higman-Thompson groups are irreducible. We also show that the actions of weakly branch groups on the boundaries of rooted trees are measure contracting. This gives a new point of view on irreducibility of the corresponding Koopman...

Given a transformation $T$ of a standard measure space $(X,\mu)$, let $\Cal M(T)$ denote the set of spectral multiplicities of the Koopman operator $U_T$ defined in $L^2(X,\mu)\ominus\Bbb C$ by $U_Tf:=f\circ T$. It is discussed in this survey paper which subsets of $\Bbb N\cup\{\infty\}$ are realizable as $\Cal M(T)$ for various $T$: ergodic, weakly mixing, mixing, Gaussian, Poisson, ergodic infinite measure preserving, etc. The corresponding constructions are considered in d...

We establish new results on the weak containment of quasi-regular and Koopman representations of a second countable locally compact group $G$ associated with non-singular $G$-spaces. We deduce that any two boundary representations of a hyperbolic locally compact group are weakly equivalent. We also show that non-amenable hyperbolic locally compact groups with a cocompact amenable subgroup are characterized by the property that any two proper length functions are homothetic up...

In \cite{BAMU}, an ergodic theorem \`a la Birkhoff-von Neumann for the action of the fundamental group of a compact negatively curved manifold on the boundary of its universal cover is proved. A quick corollary is the irreducibility of the associated unitary representation. These results are generalized \cite{BOYER} to the context of convex cocompact groups of isometries of a CAT(-1) space, using Theorem 4.1.1 of \cite{ROBLI}, with the hypothesis of non arithmeticity of the s...

We introduce unitary representations of continuous groupoids on continuous fields of Hilbert spaces. We investigate some properties of these objects and discuss some of the standard constructions from representation theory in this particular context. An important r\^{ole} is played by the regular representation. We conclude by discussing some operator algebra associated to continuous representations of groupoids; in particular, we analyse the relationship of continuous repres...