Borelian subgroups of simple Lie groups (Q516149)

The author proves that a simple real Lie group contains no Borel-measurable dense subset of intermediate Hausdorff dimension. More precisely, the main theorem is the following. Theorem 1.1. Let \(G\) be a connected simple real Lie group endowed with a Riemannian metric. There is no Borel measurable dense subgroup of \(G\) with Hausdorff dimension strictly between 0 and \(\text{dim}~G\). The paper also contains a more precise (quantitative) version of this theorem (Theorem 1.2). In the case of the group \(\text{SU}(2)\), Theorem 1.1 was established by \textit{E. Lindenstrauss} and the author of the present paper [Isr. J. Math. 209, Part 1, 335--354 (2015; Zbl 1328.22007)]. The proof of Theorem 1.1 uses the strategy of ``discretization'', which was developed by \textit{J. Bourgain} for his solution of the Erdős-Volkmann conjecture [Geom. Funct. Anal. 13, No. 2, 334--365 (2003; Zbl 1115.11049)]; roughly speaking, the idea of this method is to transform the problem of estimating Hausdorff dimensions into a combinatorial problem concerning covering numbers of sets of balls with some small fixed radius. This combinatorial problem is then handled using a discretized product theorem for simple Lie groups, which was established by the author of the present paper in [Geom. Funct. Anal. 25, No. 3, 915--941 (2015; Zbl 1321.22013)].