Harmonic cocycles, von Neumann algebras, and irreducible affine isometric actions

MaRDI QIDQ2407263zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Bachir Bekka

Publication date 29 September 2017

Published in The New York Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.08944, http://www.emis.de/journals/NYJM/j/2017/23-52.html

IPFS File on IPFS (Hint: this is only the Hash - if you get a timeout, this file is not available on our server.)

zbMATH Keywords

von Neumann algebrasvon Neumann dimensionfirst \(\ell^2\)-Betti numberisometric group actions on Hilbert spacesreduced first cohomology

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Unitary representations of locally compact groups (22D10) (C^*)-algebras and (W^*)-algebras in relation to group representations (22D25) Continuous cohomology of Lie groups (22E41)

Abstract: Let $G$ be a compactly generated locally compact group and $(pi,mathcalH)$ a unitary representation of $G.$ The $1$-cocycles with coefficients in $pi$ which are harmonic (with respect to a suitable probability measure on $G$) represent classes in the first reduced cohomology $$ We show that harmonic $1$-cocycles are characterized inside their reduced cohomology class by the fact that they span a minimal closed subspace of $mathcalH.$ In particular, the affine isometric action given by a harmonic cocycle $b$ is irreducible (in the sense that $mathcalH$ contains no non-empty, proper closed invariant affine subspace) if the linear span of $b(G)$ is dense in $mathcalH.$ The converse statement is true, if $pi$ moreover has no almost invariant vectors. Our approach exploits the natural structure of the space of harmonic $1$-cocycles with coefficients in $pi$ as a Hilbert module over the von Neumann algebra $pi(G{)}^{\prime },$ which is the commutant of $pi(G)$. Using operator algebras techniques, such as the von Neumann dimension, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a factorial representation $pi$ without almost invariant vectors to admit an irreducible affine action with $pi$ as linear part.

Recommendations

• Irreducible affine isometric actions on Hilbert spaces
• Reduced 1-cohomology of connected locally compact groups and applications
• Free groups and reduced 1-cohomology of unitary representations
• Affinely prime dynamical systems
• On 1-cocycles induced by a positive definite function on a locally compact abelian group

Cited in

(6)

• On \(1\)-cocycles induced by a positive definite function on a locally compact abelian group
• Harmonic functions on compactly generated groups
• On \(L^2\)-cohomology and property (T) for automorphism groups of polyhedral cell complexes
• Affinely prime dynamical systems
• Irreducible affine isometric actions on Hilbert spaces
• Nonsingular Poisson suspensions

This page was built for publication: Harmonic cocycles, von Neumann algebras, and irreducible affine isometric actions

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2407263)