arXiv research

We prove that any action of a higher rank lattice on a Gromov-hyperbolic space is elementary. More precisely, it is either elliptic or parabolic. This is a large generalization of the fact that any action of a higher rank lattice on a tree has a fixed point. A consequence is that any quasi-action of a higher rank latti…

In this paper the notion of Measure Equivalence (ME) of countable groups is studied. ME was introduced by Gromov as a measure-theoretic analog of quasi-isometries. All lattices in the same locally compact group are Measure Equivalent; this is one of the motivations for this notion. The main result of this paper is ME r…

The paper proves actions of lattices in higher rank groups have cost one.

We classify all holomorphic actions of higher rank lattices on compact Kaehler manifolds of dimension 3. This provides a complete answer to Zimmer's program for holomorphic actions on compact Kaehler manifolds of dimension at most 3.

Study positive entropy actions by higher-rank lattices, proving rigidity and conjugacy results.

The paper proves rigidity for cocycles from higher rank lattices to Out(FN).

New lattices in higher rank contain a fixed 3-manifold group with increasing systole.

We show that most homogeneous Anosov actions of higher rank Abelian groups are locally smoothly rigid (up to an automorphism). This result is the main part in the proof of local smooth rigidity for two very different types of algebraic actions of irreducible lattices in higher rank semisimple Lie groups: (i) the Anosov…

We show that S-arithmetic lattices in semisimple Lie groups with no rank one factors are quasi-isometrically rigid.

Global rigidity theorem for certain lattice actions on manifolds.

We investigate conformal actions of cocompact lattices in higher-rank simple Lie groups on compact pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. Our main result gives a general bound on the real-rank of the lattice, which was already known for the action of the full Lie group by a result of Zimmer. When the real-rank is maximal, we pro…

The paper proves that certain spaces have injective balls of any radius.

We investigate the rank gradient and growth of torsion in homology in residually finite groups. As a tool, we introduce a new complexity notion for generating sets, using measured groupoids and combinatorial cost. As an application we prove the vanishing of the above invariants for Farber sequences of subgroups of righ…

We give very flexible, concrete constructions of discrete and faithful epresentations of right-angled Artin groups into higher-rank Lie groups. Using the geometry of the associated symmetric spaces and the combinatorics of the groups, we find a general criterion for when discrete and faithful representations exist, and…

The paper proves Zimmer's conjecture for non-uniform lattices by controlling mass escape and Lyapunov exponents.

Let $Γ$ be an irreducible lattice of $\Q$-rank $\geq 2$ in a semisimple Lie group of noncompact type. We prove that any action of $Γ$ on a $\CAT(0)$ cubical complex has a global fixed point.

If $G$ is a semisimple Lie group of real rank at least 2 and $Γ$ is an irreducible lattice in $G$, then every homomorphism from $Γ$ to the outer automorphism group of a finitely generated free group has finite image.

Proves finite measure implies product structure for certain discrete subgroups.

We show that the number of conjugacy classes of maximal finite subgroups of a lattice in a semisimple Lie group is linearly bounded by the covolume of the lattice. Moreover, for higher rank groups, we show that this number grows sublinearly with covolume. We obtain similar results for isotropy subgroups in lattices. Ge…

Fix a K3 lattice $Λ$ of rank two and $L\inΛ$ a big and nef divisor that is positive enough. We prove that the generic $Λ$-polarised K3 surface has an integral nodal rational curve in the linear system $|L|$, in particular strengthening previous work of the first named author. The technique is by degeneration, and also …

If Gamma is a nonuniform, irreducible lattice in a semisimple Lie group whose real rank is greater than 1, we show Gamma contains a subgroup that is isomorphic to a nonuniform, irreducible lattice in either SL(3,R), SL(3,C), or a direct product SL(2,R)^m x SL(2,C)^n$, with m + n > 1. (In geometric terms, this can be in…

We prove geometric superrigidity for actions of cocompact lattices in semisimple Lie groups of higher rank on infinite dimensional Riemannian manifolds of nonpositive curvature and finite telescopic dimension.

In this paper we study perturbations of constant cocycles for actions of higher rank semi-simple algebraic groups and their lattices. Roughly speaking, for ergodic actions, Zimmer's cocycle superrigidity theorems implies that the perturbed cocycle is measurably conjugate to a constant cocycle modulo a compact valued co…

New subgroup found in Lie groups with unusual properties.

Proof of boundedness of quasimorphisms for certain Lie groups.

Let G be a connected semisimple Lie group without compact factors whose real rank is at least 2, and let Γ\subset G be an irreducible lattice. We provide a C^\infty classification for volume-preserving Cartan actions of Γand G. Also, if G has real rank at least 3, we provide a C^\infty classification for volume-preserv…

We prove global results about actions of cocompact lattices in higher-rank simple Lie groups on closed manifolds endowed with either a projective class of connections or a conformal class of pseudo-Riemannian metrics of signature $(p,q)$, with $\min(p,q) \geq 2$. In the continuity of a recent article, provided that suc…

We prove several cases of Zimmer's conjecture for actions of higher-rank cocompact lattices on low dimensional manifolds. For example, if $Γ$ is a cocompact lattice in $\mathrm{Sl}(n, \mathbb R)$, $M$ is a compact manifold, and $ω$ a volume form on $M$ we show that any homomorphism $ρ\colon Γ\rightarrow \mathrm{Diff}(M…

We study quasi-isometric embeddings of symmetric spaces and non-uniform irreducible lattices in semisimple higher rank Lie groups. We show that any quasi-isometric embedding between symmetric spaces of the same rank can be decomposed into a product of quasi-isometric embeddings into irreducible symmetric spaces. We thu…

We determine the number of cusps of minimal Picard modular surfaces. The proof also counts cusps of other Picard modular surfaces of arithmetic interest. Consequently, for each N > 0 there are finitely many commensurability classes of nonuniform arithmetic lattices in SU(2, 1) that contain an N-cusped surface. We also …

Gopal Prasad and A. S. Rapinchuk defined a notion of weakly commensurable lattices in a semisimple group, and gave a classification of weakly commensurable Zariski dense subgroups. A motivation was to classify pairs of locally symmetric spaces isospectral with respect to the Laplacian on functions. For this, in higher …

We show that every subgroup of the mapping class group MCG(S) of a compact surface S is either virtually abelian or it has infinite dimensional second bounded cohomology. As an application, we give another proof of the Farb-Kaimanovich-Masur rigidity theorem that states that MCG(S) does not contain a higher rank lattic…

In this paper, we investigate the ergodic and rigidity properties of weakly hyperbolic group actions. Motivated by classical theorems describing Anosov diffeomorphisms, we obtain two main results: First, all C^2 volume preserving weakly hyperbolic actions on closed manifolds are ergodic. This result generalizes Anosov'…

Divergence functions of a metric space estimate the length of a path connecting two points $A$, $B$ at distance $\le n$ avoiding a large enough ball around a third point $C$. We characterize groups with non-linear divergence functions as groups having cut-points in their asymptotic cones. By Olshanskii-Osin-Sapir, that…

Suppose $Γ$ is an arithmetic group defined over a global field $K$, that the $K$-type of $Γ$ is $A_n$ with $n \geq 2$, and that the ambient semisimple group that contains $Γ$ as a lattice has at least two noncocompact factors. We use results from Bestvina-Eskin-Wortman and Cornulier-Tessera to show that $Γ$ has a polyn…

In the first paper of this series (arxiv.org/abs/1210.2961) we studied the asymptotic behavior of Betti numbers, twisted torsion and other spectral invariants for sequences of lattices in Lie groups G. A key element of our work was the study of invariant random subgroups (IRSs) of G. Any sequence of lattices has a subs…

The paper constructs Anosov representations for specific types of groups.

The paper explores actions on metric spaces similar to 3D manifolds, proving rigidity results.

Let G be a real semisimple Lie group with no compact factors and finite centre, and let $Λ$ be a lattice in G. Suppose that there exists a homomorphism from $Λ$ to the outer automorphism group of a right-angled Artin group $A_Γ$ with infinite image. We give an upper bound to the real rank of G that is determined by the…

Let $G$ be a higher-rank semisimple Lie group over a nonarchimedean local field, for example $G={\rm PGL}(n,Q_P)$. To any lattice $L$ in $G$ there is an associated simplicial complex $B_L$, given by the quotient by $L$ of the Bruhat-Tits building associated to $G$. In this paper prove that the simplicial structure $B_L…

We announce a generalization of Zimmer's cocycle superrigidity theorem proven using harmonic map techniques. This allows us to generalize many results concerning higher rank lattices to all lattices in semisimple groups with property $(T)$. In particular, our results apply to SP(1,n) and $F_4^{-20}$ and lattices in tho…

Let $J$ be a semisimple Lie group with all simple factors of real rank at least two. Let $Γ<J$ be a lattice. We prove a very general local rigidity result about actions of $J$ or $Γ$. This shows that almost all so-called "standard actions" are locally rigid. As a special case, we see that any action of $Γ$ by toral aut…

We prove that either the images of the mapping class groups by quantum representations are not isomorphic to higher rank lattices or else the kernels have a large number of normal generators. Further we show that the images of the mapping class groups have nontrivial 2-cohomology, at least for small levels. For this pu…

Affine maps reveal higher rank structures in certain spaces.

Combination theorems for convex projective geometry subgroups.

The paper encourages Kleinian group thinking for higher rank Lie groups.

Proves a higher rank rigidity theorem for convex real projective manifolds.

Let $Γ$ be a discrete group with property $(T)$ of Kazhdan. We prove that any Riemannian isometric action of $Γ$ on a compact manifold $X$ is locally rigid. We also prove a more general foliated version of this result. The foliated result is used in our proof of local rigidity for standard actions of higher rank semisi…