Character rigidity for special linear groups. (Q2629834)

In the paper the characters of the group \(\mathrm{SL}_n(R)\) where \(R\) is an infinite field or a localization of an order in a number field are studied. The main results of the paper are the following. For the group \(\mathrm{SL}_2(k)\) where \(k\) is an infinite field a complete classification of characters is given. Moreover, the authors prove a character rigidity result for groups \(\mathrm{SL}_2(B^{-1}S)\) where \(B\) is an order in a number field \(K\), \(S\subset B\) is a multiplicative subset, \(B^{-1}S\) denotes the localization. It is assumed that \(B^{-1}S\) contains an infinite number of units. The authors show that character rigidity implies a non-existence result for invariant random subgroups. This was also shown independently by \textit{A. Dudko} and \textit{K. Medynets} [Groups Geom. Dyn. 8, No. 2, 375-389 (2014; Zbl 1328.20012)]. As a particular consequence it is proved the non-existence of invariant random subgroups of \(\mathrm{SL}_n(k)\) for \(n\geq 2\). It is proved that for any infinite field, any non-trivial measure-preserving ergodic action of \(\mathrm{PSL}_2(k)\) on a probability measure space is essentially free. Similar results are derived for groups \(\mathrm{PSL}_n(k)\) and \(\mathrm{PSL}_n(B^{-1}S)\), \(n\geq 3\) and \(\mathrm{PSL}_2(B^{-1}S)\) in the case when \(B^{-1}S\) contains an infinite number of units.