Rigidity, weak mixing, and recurrence in abelian groups (Q2078350)

The paper is concerned with the following question: to what extent do the properties of rigid measure-preserving actions of the group of integers \(\mathbb Z\) extend to infinitely countable abelian groups? Especially, what changes in the presence of torsion? A \textit{rigidity sequence} \((a_n)\) of elements of a group \(\Gamma\) acting by measure-preserving isomorphisms \(T_g\), \(g\in\Gamma\), on a standard non-atomic Lebesgue measure space \((X,{\mathcal B},\mu)\) is defined by the property that for every \(f\in L^2(X,\mu)\) one has \(\Vert f-T_{a_n}f\Vert_2\to 0\). In other words, the sequence of (images of) transformations \((T_{a_n})\) converges to identity in the weak operator topology on the unitary group of \(L^2(X,\mu)\) (or, equivalently, in the coarse topology on the group \(\mbox{Aut}\,(X,\mu)\)). The first main result of the article extends to an arbitrary countable abelian group \(\Gamma\) the following result from the acting group \(\mathbb Z\): a sequence \((a_n)\) that is rigid for some ergodic action of \(\Gamma\) is also rigid for some weakly mixing action (see [\textit{T. Adams}, Colloq. Math. 138, No. 1, 47--71 (2015; Zbl 1347.37002); \textit{B. Fayad} and \textit{J.-P. Thouvenot}, Acta Arith. 165, No. 4, 327--332 (2014; Zbl 1310.11079); \textit{C. Badea} and \textit{S. Grivaux} Comment. Math. Helv. 95, No. 1, 99--127 (2020; Zbl 1451.43001)]). Further, the authors prove the following version of the result, which excludes ``trivial'' cases where rigid sequences come from smaller subgroups (like copies of \(\mathbb Z\) in \({\mathbb Z}^n\)): a sequence \((a_n)\) that is rigid for some \textit{free} ergodic action of \(\Gamma\) is also rigid for some \textit{free} weakly mixing action. For the case \(\Gamma=\mathbb Z\), this is equivalent to the previous theorem. The next main result clarifies the relationship between rigidity and discrete spectrum, by generalizing a theorem of \textit{J. T. Griesmer} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 39, No. 5, 1299--1316 (2019; Zbl 07657613)] from the case \(\Gamma=\mathbb Z\): any countable abelian group admits a sequence that is a rigidity sequence for some weakly mixing action, but not for any action with discrete spectrum. The technical tool for the result is the notion of a \textit{rigid-recurrent sequence}, meaning that for some action of \(\Gamma\), \((a_n)\) is a rigid sequence and at the same time \(\{a_n\}\) is a set of recurrence, that is, for every \(A\) with \(\mu(A)>0\) there is \(n\) with \(a_n\neq 0\) and \(\mu(A\cap T^{-1}_{a_n}(A))>0\). The theorems are discussed and illustrated with examples (including constructing rigidity sequences in a countable sum of copies of the additive group of a finite field, having no obvious analogues in \(\mathbb Z\)) and counterexamples, and some further conjectures are proposed. Amenability, upper density, Furstenberg correspondence, and monotileable groups are among the topics linked to article's results. \textit{Reviewer's remark:} Proposition 3.9 states that if \((a_n)\) is a rigid sequence for a free ergodic action of a group \(\Gamma\), then there is a Hausdorff group topology on \(\Gamma\) in which \((a_n)\) converges to identity. By the definition of rigidity, as discussed at the beginning of the review, it seems enough to request the action to be effective (instead of free ergodic), that is, the measure of the set of fixed point of each \(T_g\), \(g\neq 1\) is \(<1\).