Operator ergodic theorems for actions of free semigroups and groups (Q5930969)

There have been various ergodic theorems in recent decades for actions of countable groups on probability spaces, extending classical results for measure-preserving automorphisms (namely actions of the cyclic group). In the general case there is also a rather delicate issue of choosing the averaging process for the purpose of such results involved. In the present paper the author considers actions of free semigroups and groups on probability spaces, say \((X,\nu)\). A new and more general averaging process is introduced, starting with an arbitrary stationary Markov measure \(\mu\) on the space of all infinite sequences of a set of generators, taking spherical averages for each word-length with the weights corresponding to \(\mu\), and then Cesàro averages of the spherical averages. The main theorem asserts convergence of the averages pointwise \(\nu\)-a.e. and in \(L^1(X,\nu)\). The theorem is derived from ergodic theorems for Markov operators, after proving an operator version of it. The results generalise various earlier ergodic theorems in literature. From the main result the author also deduces ergodic theorems for what are called Markov semigroups.