Bernoulli actions of type \(\mathrm{III}_{1}\) and \(L^2\)-cohomology (Q1752927)

The authors study nonsingular Bernoulli actions on countable groups. They conjecture that a countable group \(G\) admits a nonsingular Bernoulli action of type III\(_1\) if and only if the first \(L^2\)-cohomology of \(G\) is nonzero, and they prove the conjecture for all groups that admit at least one element of infinite order. More precisely, they prove the conjecture in the case where \(G\) is amenable and in the case where \(G\) has positive first \(L^2\)-Betti number and contains an infinite subgroup whose first \(L^2\)-Betti number is strictly smaller than that of \(G\). The paper contains other interesting results, and concrete examples of nonsingular actions of the free groups \(\mathbb{F}_n\).