No label defined (Q4934479)

This paper mainly is an expository article dealing with connections between random ergodic theorems for group actions, the existence and uniqueness of invariant functionals on certain function spaces associated with the group action and a ``spectral gap condition''. Let \(\mu\) be a probability measure on a locally compact group \(G\) and let \(\Omega= G^\mathbb{N}\) and \(P=\mu^\mathbb{N}\). For a sequence \(\omega= (\omega_1, \dots, \omega_n, \dots)\in \Omega\) define \(g^\omega_n= \omega_n\omega_{n-1} \dots \omega_1\). Consider a unitary \(G\)-representation \(\pi\) on a Hilbert space \(H\), and let \(\pi (\mu)\) be the operator defined by \(\langle\pi (\mu)u,v \rangle= \int\langle \pi (g)u,v \rangle\mu(dg)\). The spectral gap condition is defined by \(\|\pi (\mu) \|<1\). E.g., if this condition holds, and \((a_n)\) is a decreasing \(l^2\)-sequence, and \(u\in H\), there is a set \(\Omega_u \subset\Omega\) of full measure, such that for \(\omega\in \Omega_u\) \[ \lim_{n\to \infty}a_n\left \|\sum^n_{i =1} \pi(g^\omega_i) u\right\|= \lim_{n \to\infty} a_n\left \|\sum^n_{i=1} \pi(\omega_i, \dots, \omega_1) u\right\|=0. \] A formulation of the random ergodic theorems is connected to topics like the positivity of Lyapunov exponents and the rate of drift of random walks. The spectral gap condition is shown to be equivalent to the nonexistence of certain invariant functionals. In the case of probability measure preserving actions on a space \((X,m)\) the spectral gap condition leads to the problem of uniqueness of the \(m\)-integration as a \(G\)-invariant mean. This, in turn, has combinatorial applications. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0927.00025].