Asymptotic shapes for ergodic families of metrics on nilpotent groups (Q1691964)

Summary: Let \(\Gamma\) be a finitely generated virtually nilpotent group. We consider three closely related problems: (i) convergence to a deterministic asymptotic cone for an equivariant ergodic family of inner metrics on \(\Gamma\), generalizing Pansu's theorem; (ii) the asymptotic shape theorem for first passage percolation for general (not necessarily independent) ergodic processes on edges of a Cayley graph of \(\Gamma\); (iii) the sub-additive ergodic theorem over a general ergodic \(\Gamma\)-action. The limiting objects are given in terms of a Carnot-Carathéodory metric on the graded nilpotent group associated to the Mal'cev completion of \(\Gamma\).