Amenable actions and dense subgroups of Lie groups (Q1095266)

It is shown that if G is a connected Lie group, H is a closed amenable subgroup and \(\Gamma\) is a separable locally compact group with an injective homomorphism i into G then the canonical action of \(\Gamma\) on G/H ((\(\gamma\),gH)\(\to i(\gamma)gH\) for all \(\gamma\in \Gamma\) and \(g\in G)\) is amenable if and only if \(i(\Gamma_ 1)R\) is closed, where R is the maximum solvable normal subgroup of G and \(\Gamma_ 1\) is the subgroup consisting of all \(\gamma\in \Gamma\) such that i(\(\gamma)\) is contained in the connected component of the identity in \(\overline{i(\Gamma)}\), the closure of i(\(\Gamma)\) in G. When \(\Gamma\) is countable this implies that the action is amenable if and only if the identity component of i(\(\Gamma)\) is solvable, which was apparently conjectured by Connes and Sullivan. The proof involves construction of certain representations over suitable local fields for any proper dense subgroup \(\Gamma\) of a connected semisimple Lie group with trivial center, which seems to be of independent interest.