Existence of positive harmonic functions on groups and on covering manifolds (Q1347277): Difference between revisions

The authors continue the study of bounded or positive harmonic functions on locally compact groups and on Riemannian manifolds. Main results: (1) Let \(G\) be a compactly generated group for which there is a continuous homomorphism \(f\) from \(G\) into an almost connected group \(L\) (i.e., \(L\) has a co-compact connected subgroup) such that the closure of \(f(G)\) has exponential growth. Then any centered adapted probability measure on \(G\) with a third moment has non-constant continuous positive harmonic functions. (2) Let \(M\) be a regular covering of a compact manifold such that the deck transformation group is a closed subgroup of an almost connected group. Then there exist non-constant positive harmonic functions on \(M\) if and only if \(M\) is of exponential growth. In particular, a centered probability measure on a linear group of exponential growth has non-constant positive harmonic functions. The same conclusion holds for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a co-compact Riemannian covering with such a covering group.