Superrigidity from Chevalley groups into acylindrically hyperbolic groups via quasi-cocycles (Q679663)

The author proves a far reaching generalisation of the superrigidity theorems of \textit{V. A. Kaimanovich} and \textit{H. Masur} [Invent. Math. 125, No. 2, 221--264 (1996; Zbl 0864.57014)], \textit{B. Farb} and \textit{H. Masur} [Topology 37, No. 6, 1169--1176 (1998; Zbl 0946.57018)] and \textit{M. R. Bridson} and \textit{R. D. Wade} [Compos. Math. 147, No. 5, 1573--1580 (2011; Zbl 1237.20027)]. Recall that the Farb-Kaimanovich-Masur theorem says that every homomorphism from an irreducible higher rank lattice \(\Gamma\) into the mapping class group \(G = \mathrm{MCG}(\Sigma_g)\) of a closed oriented surface of genus \(g\) has finite image. In the theorem of Bridson and Wade the target group is replaced by the outer automorphism group of a non-abelian free group \(G = \mathrm{Out}(F_N)\). In the present paper the group \(\Gamma\) can be any elementary Chevalley group over a finitely generated unital commutative ring associated with a reduced irreducible classical root system of rank at least \(2\) or a group which is measure equivalent to it (with an additional \(L_2\)-integrability condition), and the group \(G\) can be any acylindrically hyperbolic group. We refer to the introduction of the paper for the precise statement of the main theorem. The proof is based on the notions of property (TT) modulo T and property (TT) for weakly mixing representations. These properties are motivated by the property (TT) of \textit{N. Monod} [Continuous bounded cohomology of locally compact groups. Berlin: Springer (2001; Zbl 0967.22006)] and appear to be strictly stronger than Kazhdan's property (T) and strictly weaker than Monod's property (TT). The key technical theorem establishes property (TT) modulo T for elementary Chevalley groups. It is based on a result of \textit{M. Ershov} et al. [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 1186, iii-vi, 140 p. (2017; Zbl 1375.22005)] and can be considered as a strengthening of their Theorem~1.1 for elementary Chevalley groups.