A joinings classification and a special case of Raghunathan's conjecture in positive characteristic (with an appendix by Kevin Wortman)

Other groups and their modular and automorphic forms (several variables) (11F55) Semisimple Lie groups and their representations (22E46) Homogeneous spaces (22F30) General groups of measure-preserving transformations and dynamical systems (37A15)

Abstract: We prove the classification of joinings for maximal horospherical subgroups acting on homogeneous spaces without any restriction on the characteristic. Using the linearization technique we deduce a special case of Raghunathan's orbit closure conjecture. In the appendix quasi-isometries of higher rank lattices in semisimple algebraic groups over fields of positive characteristic are characterized.

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Let \(K\) be a global field, and \(\mathbb{G}\) be a connected, simply connected, almost simple group defined over \(K\). Let \(S\) be a finite set of places of \(K\). For \(\nu\in S\), denote \(G_\nu:=\mathbb{G}(K_\nu)\) and let \(G:=\prod_{\nu\in S} G_\nu\). Fix two irreducible arithmetic lattices \(\Gamma_1\) and \(\Gamma_2\) of \(G\), and let \(H:=G\times G\) and \(\mathbb{G}_1\) and \(\mathbb{G}_2\) be the associated \(K\)-groups, respectively, which give rise to the same \(G\). Let \(\Delta(G):= \{(g,g): g\in G\}\). For any automorphism \(\tau\) of \(G\), denote \(^\tau \Delta:=(1\times \tau) (\Delta)\). For \(i=1,2\), let \(X_i:=G/\Gamma_i\), and \(X:=X_1\times X_2\). Use the notation \(\pi_i\) for the projection onto the \(i\)-th factor of \(G\) or of \(X\). Let \(\nu\in S\) be an arbitrary place and \(\mathbb{U}_\nu\) be the unipotent radical of a fixed minimal parabolic subgroup \(\mathbb{P}_\nu\) of \(\mathbb{G}\) defined over \(K_v\). Denote \(U_v:=\mathbb{U}_\nu(K_\nu)\). A probability measure \(\mu\) on \(X\) is called joining for the \(U_\nu\)-actions on \(X_1\) and \(X_2\) if it is invariant under \((u,u)\) for all \(u\in U_\nu\) and is such that \((\pi_i)_*(\mu)\) gives the Haar measure on \(X_i\) for \(i=1,2\). The main result of the paper shows that if \(\mu\) is an ergodic joining, then either \(\mu\) is the Haar measure on \(X\) or \(\mu\) is the \(^\tau \Delta(G)\)-invariant measure on some closed orbit of \(^\tau \Delta(G)\) in \(X\), with \(\tau\) being the inner automorphism induced by a centralizer of \(U_\nu\). Moreover, in the latter case, \(\mu\) is the Haar measure of the closed orbit \((g_1, g_2)F_0\Gamma_1\times \Gamma_2\), where \((g_1, g_2)\in G\times G\) is any point of the support of \(\mu\), \(F_0=^{\tau_0}\Delta(G)\) consists of the \(K_S\)-points of a subgroup \(F_0\) of \(\mathbb{G}_1\times \mathbb{G}_2\) defined over \(K\), and \(\tau_0\) is some inner automorphism. This main theorem generalizes Ratner's joining classification [\textit{M. Ratner}, Ann. Math. (2) 118, 277--313 (1983; Zbl 0556.28020)] to the positive characteristic setting. Using the linearization technique, the authors also obtain a special case of Raghunathan's orbit closure classification. They prove that every orbit of \(\Delta(G)\) in \(G\times G / \Gamma_1\times \Gamma_2\) is either closed or dense. The paper contains an appendix written by K. Wortman who applies the results of the paper to characterize the quasi-isometries of higher-rank lattices in semisimple algebraic groups over fields of positive characteristic.

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