Zimmer's conjecture for actions of SL(m,Z)

DOI10.1007/S00222-020-00962-XMaRDI QIDQ785946zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors David Fisher, Sebastian Hurtado, Aaron W. Brown

Publication date 12 August 2020

Published in Inventiones Mathematicae (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.02735

Other matrix groups over rings (20H25) General theory of group and pseudogroup actions (22F05) Dynamics induced by group actions other than (mathbb{Z}) and (mathbb{R}), and (mathbb{C}) (37C85) Noncompact Lie groups of transformations (57S20)

Abstract: We prove Zimmer's conjecture for

C^{2}

actions by finite-index subgroups of

m a t h r m S L (m, m a t h b b Z)

provided

m > 3

. The method utilizes many ingredients from our earlier proof of the conjecture for actions by cocompact lattices in

m a t h r m S L (m, m a t h b b R)

but new ideas are needed to overcome the lack of compactness of the space

(G i m e s M) / G a m m a

(admitting the induced

G

-action). Non-compactness allows both measures and Lyapunov exponents to escape to infinity under averaging and a number of algebraic, geometric, and dynamical tools are used control this escape. New ideas are provided by the work of Lubotzky, Mozes, and Raghunathan on the structure of nonuniform lattices and, in particular, of

m a t h r m S L (m, m a t h b b Z)

providing a geometric decomposition of the cusp into rank one directions, whose geometry is more easily controlled. The proof also makes use of a precise quantitative form of non-divergence of unipotent orbits by Kleinbock and Margulis, and an extension by de la Salle of strong property (T) to representations of nonuniform lattices.

Review text

This paper aims to prove Zimmer's conjecture for \(C^2\) actions by finite-index subgroups of \(\mathrm{SL}(m, \mathbb{Z})\) for \(m > 3\), which is stated as follows. Theorem A. Let \(\Gamma\) be a finite-index subgroup of \(\mathrm{SL}(m,\mathbb{Z})\) and let \(M\) be a closed manifold of dimension \(\dim(M) \le m-2\). If \(\alpha :\Gamma \rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}^2(M)\) is a group homomorphism then \(\alpha(\Gamma)\) is finite. In addition, if \(\omega\) is a volume form on \(M\), \(m > 2\), and if \(\dim(M) \le m-1\), then if and \(\alpha :\Gamma \rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}^2(M, \omega)\) is a group homomorphism then \(\alpha(\Gamma)\) is finite. To prove Theorem A, they prove the following theorem. Theorem B. For \(m\ge 4\), let \(\Gamma= \mathrm{SL}(m,\mathbb{Z})\) and let \(M\) be a closed manifold. (1) If \(\dim(M) \le m-2\), then any action \(\alpha: \Gamma \rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}^2(M)\) has uniform subexponential growth of derivatives; (2) if \(\omega\) is a volume form on \(M\) and \(\dim(M) \le m-1\), then any action \(\alpha: \Gamma \rightarrow\mathrm{Diff}^2(M,\omega)\) has uniform subexponential growth of derivatives. The authors deduce Theorem A from Theorem B by using their previous paper [``Zimmer's conjecture: subexponential growth, measure rigidity, and strong property (T), Preprint, \url{arXiv:1608.0499}] and applying de la Salle's result establishing strong property(T) for nonuniform lattices [\textit{M. de la Salle}, ``Strong (T) for higher rank lattices, Preprint, \url{arXiv:1711.01900}] and conclude that any action \(\alpha\) as in Theorem A preserves a continuous Riemannian metric. To explain the proof of Theorem B, at first they explain the difficulties in extending the arguments from their earlier paper to the setting of actions by nonuniform lattices. Then they outline the strategy of the proof of Theorem B. The paper can be considered as an step in extending the results in the previous paper of the authors [loc. cit.] to the case where \(\Gamma\) is a nonuniform lattice in a split simple Lie group. The authors follow their strategy used in the mentioned earlier paper to get the main theorem. However, some problems arise in the lack of cocompactness assumption of \(\Gamma\) and the authors provide new ideas by using a number of algebraic, geometric, and dynamical tools to overcome the difficulties. The paper is written exceptionally well and the sections follow clearly.

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