Rigidity for \(C^1\) actions on the interval arising from hyperbolicity. I: Solvable groups (Q2406014)

The paper under review is devoted to study the \(C^1\) action of a class of solvable groups namelly the abelian-by-cyclic groups (and for the definition and some studies on this type of groups see for example [\textit{J. Boler}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 55, 17--21 (1976; Zbl 0298.20031)] and also the references observed by \textit{R. Bieri} and \textit{R. Strebel} [Comment. Math. Helv. 53, 258--278 (1978; Zbl 0373.20035)] and \textit{B. Farb} and \textit{L. Mosher} [Invent. Math. 137, No. 3, 613--649 (1999; Zbl 0931.20035)]). In this paper, the authors prove that these actions are rigid provided the cyclic factor acts hyperbolically on the abelian subgroup, and that this rigidity disappears in the non-hyperbolic case, i.e. the authors consider abelian-by-cyclic groups for which the cyclic factor acts by hyperbolic automorphisms on the abelian subgroup and prove that if such a group acts faithfully by \(C^1\) diffeomorphisms of the closed interval with no global fixed point at the interior, then the action is topologically conjugate to that of an affine group (see Theorem 1.3). Moreover, in case of non-abelian image, the authors prove a rigidity result concerning the multipliers of the homotheties, despite the fact that the conjugacy is not necessarily smooth (see Theorem 1.7). Because of these results the authors propose the following question: ``What are the subgroups of the group of piecewise affine homeomorphisms of the circle or interval that are topologically conjugate to groups of \(C^1\) diffeomorphisms?''