arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ralf Spatzier.
In honor of Zhiren Wang on the occasion of being awarded the Brin Prize, we report on his exciting and deep work on rigidity of higher rank abelian groups and lattices in higher rank semisimple groups.
We consider rigidity properties of compact symmetric spaces $X$ with metric $g_0$ of rank one. Suppose $g$ is another Riemannian metric on $X$ with sectional curvature $κ$ bounded by $0 \leq κ\leq 1$. If $g$ equals $g_0$ outside a convex proper subset of $X$, then $g$ is isometric with $g_0$. We also exhibit examples of surfaces showing that the nonnegativity of the curvature is needed. Our main result complements earlier results on other symmetric spaces by Gromov and Schroeder-Ziller.
We study $\mathbb{R}^k \times \mathbb{Z}^\ell$ actions on arbitrary compact manifolds with a projectively dense set of Anosov elements and 1-dimensional coarse Lyapunov foliations. Such actions are called totally Cartan actions. We completely classify such actions as built from low-dimensional Anosov flows and diffeomorphisms and affine actions, verifying the Katok-Spatzier conjecture for this class. This is achieved by introducing a new tool, the action of a dynamically defined topological group describing paths in coarse Lyapunov foliations, and understanding its generators and relations. We obtain applications to the Zimmer program.
We consider actions of cocompact lattices in semisimple Lie groups of the noncompact type on their boundaries $G/Q$, $Q$ a parabolic group, the so-called standard actions. We show that perturbations of the standard action in the homeomorphism group continuously factor onto the original standard action by a semi-conjugacy close to the identity. This generalizes works by Bowden, Mann, Manning and Weisman in the setting of negative curvature or Gromov hyperbolic groups. Finally, we also construct perturbations of the action of lattices on the geodesic boundary which are not $C^0$ semi-conjugate to the original action.
Zimmer's superrigidity theorems on higher rank Lie groups and their lattices launched a program of study aiming to classify actions of semisimple Lie groups and their lattices, known as the {\it Zimmer program}. When the group is too large relative to the dimension of the phase space, the Zimmer conjecture predicts that the actions are all virtually trivial. At the other extreme, when the actions exhibit enough regular behavior, the actions should all be of algebraic origin. We make progress in the program by showing smooth conjugacy to a bi-homogeneous model (up to a finite cover) for volume-preserving actions of semisimple Lie groups without compact or rank one factors, which have two key assumptions: partial hyperbolicity for a large class of elements ({\it totally partial hyperbolicity}) and accessibility, a condition on the webs generated by dynamically-defined foliations. We also obtain classification for actions of higher-rank abelian groups satisfying stronger assumptions.
Consider actions of $\Z ^r$ by ergodic automorphisms on a compact nilmanifolds for $r \geq 2$. We show that small $C^k$ perturbations of such higher rank partially hyperbolic actions are smoothly conjugate to the original action, using a KAM scheme. The driving force for convergence of this iteration is the exponential mixing of the original action.
This paper develops new techniques for studying smooth dynamical systems in the presence of a \CC metric. Principally, we employ the theory of Margulis-Mostow, Métivier, Mitchell and Pansu on tangent cones to establish resonances between Lyapunov exponents. We apply these results in three different settings. First, we explore rigidity properties of smooth dominated splittings for Anosov diffeomorphisms and flows via associated smooth \CC metrics. Second, we obtain local rigidity properties of higher hyperbolic rank metrics in a neighborhood of a locally symmetric one. For the latter application we also prove structural stability of the Brin-Pesin asymptotic holonomy group for frame flows. Finally, we obtain local rigidity properties for uniform lattice actions on the ideal boundary of quaternionic and octonionic symmetric spaces.
Let $M$ be a complete Riemannian manifold and suppose $p\in M$. For each unit vector $v \in T_p M$, the $\textit{Jacobi operator}$, $\mathcal{J}_v: v^\perp \rightarrow v^\perp$ is the symmetric endomorphism, $\mathcal{J}_v(w) = R(w,v)v$. Then $p$ is an $\textit{isotropic point}$ if there exists a constant $κ_p \in \mathbf{R}$ such that $\mathcal{J}_v = κ_p \textit{ Id}_{v^\perp}$ for each unit vector $v \in T_pM$. If all points are isotropic, then $M$ is said to be isotropic; it is a classical result of Schur that isotropic manifolds of dimension at least 3 have constant sectional curvatures. In this paper we consider $\textit{almost isotropic manifolds}$, i.e. manifolds having the property that for each $p \in M$, there exists a constant $κ_p \in \mathbb{R}$, such that the Jacobi operators $\mathcal{J}_v$ satisfy $\text{rank}(\mathcal{J}_v - κ_p \textit{Id}_{v^\perp}) \leq 1$ for each unit vector $v \in T_pM$. Our main theorem classifies the almost isotropic simply connected Kähler manifolds, proving that those of dimension $d=2n \geq 4$ are either isometric to complex projective space or complex hyperbolic space or are totally geodesically foliated by leaves isometric to $\mathbf{C}^{n-1}.$
A Riemannian manifold $M$ has higher hyperbolic rank if every geodesic has a perpendicular Jacobi field making sectional curvature -1 with the geodesic. If in addition, the sectional curvatures of $M$ lie in the interval $[-1,-\frac14]$, and $M$ is closed, we show that $M$ is a locally symmetric space of rank one. This partially extends work by Constantine using completely different methods. It is also a partial converse to Hamenstädt's hyperbolic rank rigidity result for sectional curvatures $\leq -1$, and complements well-known results on Euclidean and spherical rank rigidity.
We study smooth factors of the standard actions of lattices in higher rank semisimple Lie groups on flag manifolds. Under a mild condition on existence of a single differentiable sink, we show that these factors are $C^{\infty}$-conjugate to the standard actions on flag manifolds.
We show that genuinely higher rank expanding actions of abelian semi-groups on compact manifolds are $C^{\infty}$-conjugate to affine actions on infra-nilmanifolds. This is based on the classification of expanding diffeomorphisms up to \holder conjugacy by Gromov and Shub, and is similar to recent work on smooth classification of higher rank Anosov actions on tori and nilmanifolds. To prove regularity of the conjugacy in the higher rank setting, we establish exponential mixing of solenoid actions induced from semi-group actions by nilmanifold endomorphisms, a result of independent interest. We then proceed similar to the case of higher rank Anosov actions.
This paper is a survey about recent progress in measure rigidity and global rigidity of Anosov actions, and celebrates the profound contributions by Federico Rodriguez Hertz to rigidity in dynamical systems.
It is well known that surface groups admit free and proper actions on finite products of infinite valence trees. In this note, we address the question of whether there can be a free and proper action on a finite product of bounded valence trees. We provide some obstructions and an arithmetic criterion for existence. The bulk of the paper is devoted to an approach to verifying the arithmetic criterion by studying the character variety of certain surface groups over fields of positive characteristic. The methods may be useful for attempting to determine when groups admit good linear representations in other contexts.
We prove that for the frame flow on a negatively curved, closed manifold of odd dimension other than 7, and a Holder continuous potential that is constant on fibers, there is a unique equilibrium measure. We prove a similar result for automorphisms of the Heisenberg manifold fibering over the torus. Our methods also give an alternate proof of Brin and Gromov's result on the ergodicity of these frame flows.
We study affine maps between CAT(0) spaces with geometric actions, and show that they essentially split as products of dilations and linear maps (on the Euclidean factor). This extends known results from the Riemannian case. Furthermore, we prove a splitting lemma for the Tits boundary of a CAT(0) space with geometric action, a variant of a splitting lemma for geodesically complete CAT(1) spaces by Lytchak.
Rigidity results are obtained for Riemannian $d$-manifolds with $\sec \geqslant 1$ and spherical rank at least $d-2>0$. Conjecturally, all such manifolds are locally isometric to a round sphere or complex projective space with the (symmetric) Fubini--Study metric. This conjecture is verified in all odd dimensions, for metrics on $d$-spheres when $d \neq 6$, for Riemannian manifolds satisfying the Rakić duality principle, and for Kählerian manifolds.
We study mixing properties of commutative groups of automorphisms acting on compact nilmanifolds. Assuming that every nontrivial element acts ergodically, we prove that such actions are mixing of all orders. We further show exponential 2-mixing and 3-mixing. As an application we prove smooth cocycle rigidity for higher-rank abelian groups of nilmanifold automorphisms.
We study dynamical properties of automorphisms of compact nilmanifolds and prove that every ergodic automorphism is exponentially mixing and exponentially mixing of higher orders. This allows to establish probabilistic limit theorems and regularity of solutions of the cohomological equation for such automorphisms. Our method is based on the quantitative equidistribution results for polynomial maps combined with Diophantine estimates.