Locally compact groups with every isometric action bounded or proper

Abstract

A locally compact group $G$ has property PL if every isometric $G$-action either has bounded orbits or is (metrically) proper. For $p>1$, say that $G$ has property $BP_{L^p}$ if the same alternative holds for the smaller class of affine isometric actions on $L^p$-spaces. We explore properties PL and $BP_{L^p}$ and prove that they are equivalent for some interesting classes of groups: abelian groups, amenable almost connected Lie groups, amenable linear algebraic groups over a local field of characteristic 0. The appendix by Corina Ciobotaru provides new examples of groups with property PL, including non-linear ones.