On ergodic transformations that are both weakly mixing and uniformly rigid (Q1043774)

The authors investigate properties of uniformly rigid transformations and analyze the compatibility of uniform rigidity and measurable weak mixing along with some of their asymptotic convergence properties. This interesting survey includes some resent results on genericity of rigid and multiply recurrent infinite measure preserving and nonsingular transformations by \textit{O. N. Ageev} and \textit{C. E. Silva} [Topol. Proc. 26, No. 2, 357--365 (2002; Zbl 1082.37502)] and on measurable sensitivity by the authors [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 136, No. 10, 3549--3559 (2008; Zbl 1149.37002)]. All spaces of the paper under review are considered simultaneously as topological spaces and as measure spaces. Presented results concern either the measurable dynamics on the spaces or the interplay between the measurable and topological dynamics. The notion of uniform rigidity was introduced as a topological version of rigidity by \textit{S. Glasner} and \textit{D. Maon} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 9, No. 2, 309--320 (1989; Zbl 0661.58027)]. After an introductory section, a second section considers functional analytic properties of a uniform rigidity that is similar to the properties of rigidity. Theorem 1. Every totally ergodic finite measure-preserving transformation on a Lebesgue space has a representation that is not uniformly rigid, except in the case where the space consists of a single atom. The proof of the theorem connects with results of authors of the paper under review that uniform rigidity and weak mixing are mutually exclusive notions on a Cantor set, and follows from the Jewett-Krieger Theorem by \textit{K. Petersen} [Ergodic Theory. Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics, 2. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press (1983; Zbl 0507.28010)]. The third section concerns with uniform rigidity and measurable weak mixing. The authors' motivation for this topic is that a (nontrivial) measure-preserving weakly mixing transformation that is uniformly rigid would yield an example of a measurable sensitive transformation that is not strongly measurably sensitive. For a subset \(Y\) of a metric space \(X\) and a measurable transformation of \(X\), the authors of the paper under review define the notion of uniformly rigid transformation on \(Y\) and prove Theorem 3.4 that is reminiscent of Egorov's Theorem by \textit{P. Halmos} [Measure theory. New York: D. van Nostrand Co. (1950; Zbl 0040.16802)]. In the forth section, the authors present asymptotic convergence behavior. Let \(X\) be a compact metric space and let \(T\) be a finite measure-preserving ergodic transformation. The authors prove (Proposition 4.1): If \(T\) is uniformly rigid, then the uniform rigidity sequence has zero density. The aim of section five is to study group action and generalized uniform rigidity. Let \(G\) be a countable group endowed with the discrete topology acting faithfully on a finite measure space by measure-preserving transformations. Following authors of the paper under review the action of \(G\) is uniformly rigid if there exists a sequence \(\{g_{i}\}\) of group elements that leaves every compact \(K \subset G,\) denoted \( g_{i} \to \infty\), such that \(d(x, g_{i} \cdot x) \to 0\) uniformly. The main result of the section is Theorem 5.3: Let \(X\) admit a weakly mixing group action and a uniformly rigid action by nontrivial subgroups of a fixed group of automorphisms \(G.\) Then there exists a \(G\)-action on \(X\) that is simultaneously weakly mixing and uniformly rigid. The authors formulate several interesting questions (thank the referee for posing the question 4.2) that arise under investigations of weak mixing and uniform rigidity.