Cocycle superrigidity and bounded cohomology for negatively curved spaces (Q2494192)

In the present paper and in a subsequent one [Orbit equivalence rigidity and bounded cohomology, Ann. Math. (2) 164, 825--878 (2006; Zbl 1129.37003)] the authors prove superrigidity for cocycles and homomorphisms with values in the isometry group Isom\((X)\) of a proper metric space \(X\) of generalized negative curvature. By a generalized negatively curved space they mean a geodesic metric space \(X\) which is either a proper CAT(\(-1\)) space, a Gromov hyperbolic graph of bounded valency, a Gromov hyperbolic proper space on which Isom\((X)\) acts cocompactly or a simplicial tree (not necessarily locally finite). Let \(G=G_1\times G_2\times\dots\times G_n\) be the direct product of locally compact \(\sigma\)-compact groups \(G_i\) and suppose that \(G\) acts on a standard probability space \(\Omega\) preserving an irreducible measure. Let \(H\) be a closed subgroup of Isom\((X)\) and \(\alpha\colon G\times \Omega\to H\) be a nonelementary measurable cocycle. The authors prove that there exist a closed subgroup \(H'\) of \(H\) and a normal compact subgroup \(K\) of \(H'\) such that \(\alpha\) is cohomologous to a cocycle \({\alpha'\colon G\times \Omega\to H'}\), whose composition with the map \(H'\to H'/K\) gives a continuous homomorphism \(G\to H'/K\) which factorizes through some \(G_j\). This means that (modulo a compact normal subgroup) any non elementary cocycle is cohomologous to a continuous homomorphism. By a now standard technique, this implies a homomorphism superrigidity result analogous to that of the original Margulis superrigidity. More precisely, let \(\Gamma<G=\prod G_i\) be an irreducible lattice and \(J\) be an arbitrary locally compact second countable group containing a closed subgroup \(H<J\) of finite invariant co-volume such that \(H\) is also a closed subgroup of Isom\((X)\). If \(f\colon \Gamma\to J\) is a homomorphism such that the natural cocycle \(f(\Gamma)\times J/H\to H\) is nonelementary, then there is a compact normal subgroup \(K\) of \(\overline{f(\Gamma)}\) such that the induced homomorphism \(\Gamma\to \overline{f(\Gamma)}/K\) extends continuously to \(G\), factoring through some \(G_i\). They show that the nonvanishing of the second bounded cohomology groups, \(H^2_b(\Gamma, l^2(\Gamma))\), for any lattice \(\Gamma<G\) is not enough for their results. The authors also obtain some applications to the rigidity of group actions and prove some related results on the nonvanishing of second bounded cohomology groups.