No label defined (Q4946137)

This paper is a useful overview of progress in the general area of ergodic theory associated to the actions of locally compact groups. Suppose that \((X,{\mathcal B},m)\) is a measure space on which the locally compact group \(G\) acts by measure-preserving transformations. To a given sequence of measures \(\mu_n\) on \(G\), we may associate a sequence of operators \(\pi(\mu_n)\) on \(L^2(X)\). The questions addressed in the paper include: (a) Is \(\pi(\mu_n)\) a mean ergodic sequence in \(L^2(X)\)? (b) Is \(\pi(\mu_n)\) a pointwise ergodic sequence on \(L^2(X)\)? (c) Can we estimate the maximal function \(\sup_n|\pi(\mu_n)f|\) for \(f\) in \(L^2(X)\)? (d) Does \(\|\pi(\mu_n)\|\) tend to \(0\) as \(n\) increases, and if so, how fast? \noindent (For the first two questions, we assume that \(m(X)=1\), while for the last, we assume that \(m(X)=+\infty\).) The contexts in which these questions are discussed include amenable groups, where \(\mu_n\) is a measure associated with a Følner sequence, free groups, where the measure \(\mu_n\) is related to word length, and discrete subgroups of semisimple Lie groups. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0930.00053].