Sets of transfer times with small densities (Q1996827)

For an ergodic measure-preserving action of a discrete countable abelian group \(G\) on a probability space \((X,\mu)\) together with a sequence \((F_n)\) of finite subsets of \(G\) with the property that the pointwise ergodic theorem holds for averaging along \((F_n)\) (which gives a natural notion of lower asymptotic density \(\underline{d}\) for subsets of \(G\)), the authors define the set of transfer times \({\mathscr{R}}_{A,B}=\{g\in G\mid\mu(A\cap g^{-1}B)>0\}\) for measurable sets \(A,B\) with \(\mu(A)+\mu(B)<1\). The main results are aimed at establishing lower bounds for \(\underline{d}({\mathscr{R}}_{A,B})\) and to address questions about when such lower bounds are attained. The final results are sharp, and new even in the classical setting \(G=\mathbb{Z}\) in part because the hypothesis needed on the sequence \((F_n)\) is not that it is a Følner sequence, but that it admits the ergodic theorem. The arguments show that these questions are related to the ``small doubling phenomenon'' in additive combinatorics, and some of the results are seen as ergodic-theoretic extensions of \textit{M. Kneser}'s theorem [Math. Z. 58, 459--484 (1953; Zbl 0051.28104)] concerning the lower asymptotic density of sumsets in the natural numbers.