Weak isomorphisms between Bernoulli shifts (Q636022)

For \(\mathbb Z\)-actions, \textit{Ya. G. Sinai} showed that any two Bernoulli shifts (that is, measure-preserving transformations isomorphic to IID processes) of the same entropy are weakly isomorphic [Sov. Math., Dokl. 3, 1725--1729 (1963); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 147, 797--800 (1962; Zbl 0205.13501)]; later this was strengthened by Ornstein to show that in fact they are isomorphic (entropy is preserved by weak isomorphism and a fortiori by isomorphism). This classical theory of Bernoulli \(\mathbb Z\)-actions has been largely extended to the setting of amenable group actions, notably in the work of \textit{D. S. Ornstein} and \textit{B. Weiss} [J. Anal. Math. 48, 1--141 (1987; Zbl 0637.28015)]. This paper is a contribution to the non-amenable setting, and provides a striking illustration of just how differently entropy theory works in the non-amenable setting. The main result here is that if \(G\) is a countable group that contains a non-abelian free subgroup, then any two non-trivial Bernoulli \(G\)-actions are weakly isomorphic (in the amenable setting entropy is an invariant of weak isomorphism). This continues work of the author on non-amenable ergodic theory [Ann. Math. (2) 171, No. 2, 1387--1400 (2010; Zbl 1201.37007); J. Am. Math. Soc. 23, No. 1, 217--245 (2010; Zbl 1201.37005)] and contains along the way a proof of the theorem of Stepin that any countable group containing an Ornstein subgroup (that is, a subgroup for which entropy classifies the Bernoulli actions up to measurable isomorphism) is itself Ornstein. The short and ingenious proof uses the notion of co-induced actions.