Actions of semisimple Lie groups on circle bundles (Q5955154)

Let \(G\) be a connected simple real Lie group with real rank \(>1\), \(M\) be an ergodic \(G\)-space with invariant probability measure \(\mu\), and let \(\alpha:G\times M\to\text{Homeo} ({\mathbf T})\), where \(\mathbf T\) is the circle, be a Borel cocycle. It is proved that there exists a \(G\)-invariant probability measure \(\nu\) on the skew product \(M\times_\alpha{\mathbf T}\) whose projection to \(M\) is \(\mu\). If \(\alpha(G\times M)\subset\text{Diff}^1({\mathbf T})\), then \(\nu\) can be taken to be equivalent to \(\mu\times\lambda\), where \(\lambda\) is the Lebesgue measure on \(\mathbf T\), and \(\alpha\) is cohomologous to a cocycle with values in \(\text{Isom}({\mathbf T})\). To prove this, the authors develop ideas of \textit{E. Ghys} [Invent. Math. 137, 199-231 (1999; Zbl 0995.57006)] concerning actions on \(\mathbf T\) of an irreducible lattice \(\Gamma\) in a connected semisimple real Lie group \(G\) of real rank \(>1\): if \(G\) admits no homomorphisms onto \(\text{PSL}(2,{\mathbf R})\), then every homomorphism of \(\Gamma\) to \(\text{Diff}^1({\mathbf T})\) has finite image. For the natural \(G\)-action on \(M=G/\Gamma\) this means that any Borel cocycle with values in \(\text{Diff}^1({\mathbf T})\) is cohomologous to a cocycle whose image is a finite subgroup of \(\text{Diff}^1({\mathbf T})\) (for these \(M\), cohomological classes of cocycles are in one-to-one correspondence with conjugacy classes of homomorphisms \(\Gamma\to\text{Diff}^1({\mathbf T})\)). If \(G\) includes a subgroup which commutes with some circle group \(T\subset G\) and whose action on \(M\) is ergodic, then \(M\) can be realized as a principal \(\mathbf T\)-bundle, and the image of the corresponding cocycle (as well as any cohomologous one) cannot be finite. For the subgroup, this situation yields the existence of a nontrivial cocycle with values in \(\text{Isom}({\mathbf T})\); in fact, this is proved for a much more general setting. More precisely, if \(G\) is a semisimple real Lie group of \(\mathbf R\)-rank \(>1\) having the Kazhdan property \(M\) is an irreducible ergodic \(G\)-space with finite invariant measure, then any Borel cocycle \(\alpha:G\times M\to\text{Diff}^1{\mathbf T}\) is cohomologous, as a cocycle into the wider group of those homeomorphisms of \(\mathbf T\) which leave the Lebesgue measure quasi-invariant, to a cocycle with values in \(\text{Isom}({\mathbf T})\). Another theorem states that assumptions similar to the assumptions above, taken together with the existence of a measurable \(G\)-invariant section \(M\to \mathbf T\), imply the triviality of the cohomological class of the cocycle. This is a generalization of the following result of Thurston: if \(\Gamma\) is a finitely generated group such that \(\Gamma/[\Gamma,\Gamma]\) is finite then each homomorphism \(\sigma:\Gamma\to\text{Diff}^1{\mathbf T}\), such that \(\sigma(\Gamma)\) has a fixed point, is trivial [see \textit{W. P. Thurston}'s generalization of the Reeb stability theorem, Topology 13, 347-352 (1974; Zbl 0305.57025)]. An important step is Ghys's construction of subgroups \(P,L\subseteq G\) such that \(P\subset L\) and the action of \(L\) on \(L/P\) is triply transitive (note that the group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of \(\mathbf T\) is not triply transitive). The authors give a more conceptual proof than Ghys's original one. The paper also contains a generalization of these results to other clases of groups, in particular to \(S\)-arithmetic groups \(\Gamma\).