Spectrum, entropy and geometric structures for smooth actions of Kazhdan groups (Q1191992)

The author describes a fundamental feature of the measure-theoretic structure of certain smooth volume preserving actions of discrete subgroups of higher-rank semisimple Lie groups on compact manifolds. One of his main results in the assertion that, for smooth actions on compact manifolds of certain discrete subgroups of Lie groups, zero entropy is, in fact, equivalent to the discrete spectrum. [For example, this holds if the discrete subgroup is a lattice in a higher-rank semisimple group and acts smoothly on a compact manifold preserving a volume density].