Periodic cycle functionals and cocycle rigidity for certain partially hyperbolic \(\mathbb R^k\) actions (Q2574738)

Let \(M\) be a compact Riemannian manifold and let \(\alpha: \mathbb R^k\times M\to M\) be an \(\mathbb R^k\)-action on \(M\). Let \(\beta: \mathbb R^k\times M\to H\) be a continuous map, where \(H\) is a topological group. Then, \(\beta\) is called a cocycle over \(\alpha\) with value in \(H\) if \(\beta(a+ b,x)= \beta(a,\alpha(b, x))\beta(b,x)\) holds for every \(a,b\in \mathbb R^k\) and \(x\in M\). Next, \(\beta\) is said to be cohomologous to a constant cocycle if there exist a homomorphism \(\pi:\mathbb R^k\to H\) and a continuous map \(h: M\to H\), which is called a transfer map, such that \(\beta(a,x)= h(\alpha(a,x))\pi(a) h(x)^{-1}\) holds for every \(a\in\mathbb R^k\) and \(x\in M\). Now, the action \(\alpha\) is said to be \(C^{p,q}\) \(H\)-cocycle (resp. Hölder \(H\)-cocycle) rigid if every \(C^p\) (resp. Hölder) cocycle over \(\alpha\) with values in \(H\) is cohomologous to a constant cocycle via \(C^q\) (resp. Hölder)-transfer map. Next, for \(G= \text{SL}(n,K)\) with \(k=\mathbb{R}\) or \(\mathbb{C}\), we denote by \(D^+_n\) the subgroup of \(G\) of all diagonal matrices \(\text{diag}(e^{t_1},\dots, e^{t_n})\) with \(t= (t_1,\dots, t_n)\in D_n\), where the subspace \(D_n\) of dimension \(n-1\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) consists of the vectors \(t= (t_1,\dots, t_n)\in \mathbb{R}^n\) with \(\sum t_i= 0\). A subspace \(P\) of \(D_n\) is said to be in general position if \(\dim P= 2\) and for every pair \(i,j\in [1,n]\) with \(i\neq j\), and the subspace \(W_{ij}= (t_i= t_j)\subset\mathbb{R}^n\), we have \(P\cap W_{ij}\neq P\cap W_{kl}\) for every \((k,l)\neq (i,j)\). Now, for every cocompact lattice \(\Gamma\subset G\), the group \(D^+_n\) acts on \(G/\Gamma\), by left translations, this action \(\alpha\) being called a Cartan action. The main result of this paper is the following theorem: Let \(S\subset D_n\) be a subspace, which contains a 2-dimensional subspace in general position. Let \(\Gamma\) be a cocompact lattice in \(G= \text{SL}(n,K)\). Then the Cartan action \(\alpha: \exp S\times G/\Gamma\to G/\Gamma\) is Hölder \(\mathbb{R}\)-cocycle rigid and \(C^\infty\mathbb{R}\)-cocycle rigid. The authors give, for this result, some methods to the proof as well as motivations and history, emphasizing the importance of the previous paper by \textit{A. Katok} and \textit{A. Kononenko} [Math. Res. Lett. 3, 191--210 (1996; Zbl 0853.58082)].