We prove several results showing that every locally finite Borel graph whose large-scale geometry is ‘tree-like’ induces a treeable equivalence relation. In particular, our hypotheses hold if each component of the original graph either has bounded tree-width or is quasi-isometric to a tree, answering a question of Tucker-Drob. In the latter case, we moreover show that there exists a Borel quasi-isometry to a Borel forest, under the additional assumption of (componentwise) bounded degree. We also extend these results on quasi-treeings to Borel proper metric spaces. In fact, our most general result shows treeability of countable Borel equivalence relations equipped with an abstract wallspace structure on each class obeying some local finiteness conditions, which we call a proper walling. The proof is based on the Stone duality between proper wallings and median graphs (i.e., CAT(0) cube complexes). Finally, we strengthen the conclusion of treeability in these results to hyperfiniteness in the case where the original graph has one (selected) end per component, generalizing the same result for trees due to Dougherty–Jackson–Kechris.

We prove that almost every interval exchange transformation, with an associated translation surface of genus $g\geq 2$, can be non-trivially and isometrically embedded in a family of piecewise isometries. In particular, this proves the existence of invariant curves for piecewise isometries, reminiscent of Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser (KAM) curves for area-preserving maps, which are not unions of circle arcs or line segments.

A cylindrical cascade on $\mathbb {T}^d\times \mathbb {R}^r$ can be seen as a deterministic random walk on $\mathbb {R}^r$ driven by an observable over the irrational toral translation on the base torus. We prove that, when the observable is the indicator function of a generic (straight) rectangle in $\mathbb {T}^2$, the cascade on $\mathbb {T}^2\times \mathbb {R}$ is ergodic for a $G_{\delta }$-dense set of translation vectors. We also provide examples of ergodic cylindrical cascades in higher dimensions with more restrictive conditions on the side lengths of the rectangles.

We build a Shannon orbit equivalence between the universal odometer and a variety of rank-one systems. This is done in a unified manner using what we call flexible classes of rank-one transformations. Our main result is that every flexible class contains an element which is Shannon orbit equivalent to the universal odometer. Since a typical example of flexible class is $\{T\}$ when T is an odometer, our work generalizes a recent result by Kerr and Li, stating that every odometer is Shannon orbit equivalent to the universal odometer. When the flexible class is a singleton, the rank-one transformation given by the main result is explicit. This applies to odometers and Chacon’s map. We also prove that strongly mixing systems, systems with a given eigenvalue, or irrational rotations whose angle belongs to any fixed non-empty open subset of the real line form flexible classes. In particular, strong mixing, rationality or irrationality of the eigenvalues are not preserved under Shannon orbit equivalence.

We consider continuous ${\mathrm {SL}}(2,{\mathbb R})$ valued cocycles over general dynamical systems and discuss a variety of uniformity notions. In particular, we provide a description of uniform one-parameter families of continuous ${\mathrm {SL}}(2,{\mathbb R})$ cocycles as $G_\delta $-sets. These results are then applied to Schrödinger operators with dynamically defined potentials. In the case where the base dynamics is given by a subshift satisfying the Boshernitzan condition, we show that for a generic continuous sampling function, the associated Schrödinger cocycles are uniform for all energies and, in the aperiodic case, the spectrum is a Cantor set of zero Lebesgue measure.

In this paper, we prove a cocycle version of marked length spectrum rigidity. There are two consequences: the first one is marked length pattern rigidity for arithmetic hyperbolic locally symmetric manifolds, and the second one is a strengthened marked length spectrum rigidity for surfaces and closed locally symmetric manifolds.

We define the co-spectral radius of inclusions ${\mathcal S}\leq {\mathcal R}$ of discrete, probability- measure-preserving equivalence relations as the sampling exponent of a generating random walk on the ambient relation. The co-spectral radius is analogous to the spectral radius for random walks on $G/H$ for inclusion $H\leq G$ of groups. For the proof, we develop a more general version of the 2–3 method we used in another work on the growth of unimodular random rooted trees. We use this method to show that the walk growth exists for an arbitrary unimodular random rooted graph of bounded degree. We also investigate how the co-spectral radius behaves for hyperfinite relations, and discuss new critical exponents for percolation that can be defined using the co-spectral radius.

We prove that if two free probability-measure-preserving (p.m.p.) ${\mathbb Z}$-actions are Shannon orbit equivalent, then they have the same entropy. The argument also applies more generally to yield the same conclusion for free p.m.p. actions of finitely generated virtually Abelian groups. Together with the isomorphism theorems of Ornstein and Ornstein–Weiss and the entropy invariance results of Austin and Kerr–Li in the non-virtually-cyclic setting, this shows that two Bernoulli actions of any non-locally-finite countably infinite amenable group are Shannon orbit equivalent if and only if they are measure conjugate. We also show, at the opposite end of the stochastic spectrum, that every ${\mathbb Z}$-odometer is Shannon orbit equivalent to the universal ${\mathbb Z}$-odometer.

We prove that, for any countable acylindrically hyperbolic group G, there exists a generating set S of G such that the corresponding Cayley graph $\Gamma (G,S)$ is hyperbolic, $|\partial \Gamma (G,S)|>2$, the natural action of G on $\Gamma (G,S)$ is acylindrical and the natural action of G on the Gromov boundary $\partial \Gamma (G,S)$ is hyperfinite. This result broadens the class of groups that admit a non-elementary acylindrical action on a hyperbolic space with a hyperfinite boundary action.

For a continuous $\mathbb {N}^d$ or $\mathbb {Z}^d$ action on a compact space, we introduce the notion of Bohr chaoticity, which is an invariant of topological conjugacy and which is proved stronger than having positive entropy. We prove that all principal algebraic $\mathbb {Z}$ actions of positive entropy are Bohr chaotic. The same is proved for principal algebraic actions of $\mathbb {Z}^d$ with positive entropy under the condition of existence of summable homoclinic points.

Let $(M,g,J)$ be a closed Kähler manifold with negative sectional curvature and complex dimension $m := \dim _{\mathbb {C}} M \geq 2$. In this article, we study the unitary frame flow, that is, the restriction of the frame flow to the principal $\mathrm {U}(m)$-bundle $F_{\mathbb {C}}M$ of unitary frames. We show that if $m \geq 6$ is even and $m \neq 28$, there exists $\unicode{x3bb} (m) \in (0, 1)$ such that if $(M, g)$ has negative $\unicode{x3bb} (m)$-pinched holomorphic sectional curvature, then the unitary frame flow is ergodic and mixing. The constants $\unicode{x3bb} (m)$ satisfy $\unicode{x3bb} (6) = 0.9330...$, $\lim _{m \to +\infty } \unicode{x3bb} (m) = {11}/{12} = 0.9166...$, and $m \mapsto \unicode{x3bb} (m)$ is decreasing. This extends to the even-dimensional case the results of Brin and Gromov [On the ergodicity of frame flows. Invent. Math. 60(1) (1980), 1–7] who proved ergodicity of the unitary frame flow on negatively curved compact Kähler manifolds of odd complex dimension.

We single out a large class of groups ${\rm {\boldsymbol {\mathscr {M}}}}$ for which the following unique prime factorization result holds: if $\Gamma _1,\ldots,\Gamma _n\in {\rm {\boldsymbol {\mathscr {M}}}}$ and $\Gamma _1\times \cdots \times \Gamma _n$ is measure equivalent to a product $\Lambda _1\times \cdots \times \Lambda _m$ of infinite icc groups, then $n \ge m$, and if $n = m$, then, after permutation of the indices, $\Gamma _i$ is measure equivalent to $\Lambda _i$, for all $1\leq i\leq n$. This provides an analogue of Monod and Shalom's theorem [Orbit equivalence rigidity and bounded cohomology, Ann. of Math. 164 (2006), 825–878] for groups that belong to ${\rm {\boldsymbol {\mathscr {M}}}}$. Class ${\rm {\boldsymbol {\mathscr {M}}}}$ is constructed using groups whose von Neumann algebras admit an s-malleable deformation in the sense of Sorin Popa and it contains all icc non-amenable groups $\Gamma$ for which either (i) $\Gamma$ is an arbitrary wreath product group with amenable base or (ii) $\Gamma$ admits an unbounded 1-cocycle into its left regular representation. Consequently, we derive several orbit equivalence rigidity results for actions of product groups that belong to ${\rm {\boldsymbol {\mathscr {M}}}}$. Finally, for groups $\Gamma$ satisfying condition (ii), we show that all embeddings of group von Neumann algebras of non-amenable inner amenable groups into $L(\Gamma )$ are ‘rigid’. In particular, we provide an alternative solution to a question of Popa that was recently answered by Ding, Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, and Peterson [Properly Proximal von Neumann Algebras, Preprint (2022), arXiv:2204.00517].

Let $G_\Gamma \curvearrowright X$ and $G_\Lambda \curvearrowright Y$ be two free measure-preserving actions of one-ended right-angled Artin groups with trivial center on standard probability spaces. Assume they are irreducible, i.e. every element from a standard generating set acts ergodically. We prove that if the two actions are stably orbit equivalent (or merely stably $W^*$-equivalent), then they are automatically conjugate through a group isomorphism between $G_\Gamma$ and $G_\Lambda$. Through work of Monod and Shalom, we derive a superrigidity statement: if the action $G_\Gamma \curvearrowright X$ is stably orbit equivalent (or merely stably $W^*$-equivalent) to a free, measure-preserving, mildly mixing action of a countable group, then the two actions are virtually conjugate. We also use the works of Popa and Ioana, Popa and Vaes to establish the $W^*$-superrigidity of Bernoulli actions of all infinite conjugacy classes groups having a finite generating set made of infinite-order elements where two consecutive elements commute, and one has a nonamenable centralizer: these include one-ended nonabelian right-angled Artin groups, but also many other Artin groups and most mapping class groups of finite-type surfaces.

We extend Katok’s result on ‘the approximation of hyperbolic measures by horseshoes’ to Banach cocycles. More precisely, let f be a $C^r(r>1)$ diffeomorphism of a compact Riemannian manifold M, preserving an ergodic hyperbolic measure $\mu $ with positive entropy, and let $\mathcal {A}$ be a Hölder continuous cocycle of bounded linear operators acting on a Banach space $\mathfrak {X}$. We prove that there is a sequence of horseshoes for f and dominated splittings for $\mathcal {A}$ on the horseshoes, such that not only the measure theoretic entropy of f but also the Lyapunov exponents of $\mathcal {A}$ with respect to $\mu $ can be approximated by the topological entropy of f and the Lyapunov exponents of $\mathcal {A}$ on the horseshoes, respectively. As an application, we show the continuity of sub-additive topological pressure for Banach cocycles.

We prove the first orbit equivalence superrigidity results for actions of type III$_\unicode{x3bb} $ when $\unicode{x3bb} \neq 1$. These actions arise as skew products of actions of dense subgroups of $\operatorname {SL}(n,\mathbb {R})$ on the sphere $S^{n-1}$ and they can have any prescribed associated flow.

Let $u_{X}^{t}$ be a unipotent flow on $X=\mathrm {SO}(n,1)/\Gamma $, $u_{Y}^{t}$ be a unipotent flow on $Y=G/\Gamma ^{\prime }$. Let $\tilde {u}_{X}^{t}$, $\tilde {u}_{Y}^{t}$ be time changes of $u_{X}^{t}$, $u_{Y}^{t}$, respectively. We show the disjointness (in the sense of Furstenberg) between $u_{X}^{t}$ and $\tilde {u}_{Y}^{t}$ (or $\tilde {u}_{X}^{t}$ and $u_{Y}^{t}$) in certain situations. Our method refines the works of Ratner’s shearing argument. The method also extends a recent work of Dong, Kanigowski, and Wei [Rigidity of joinings for some measure preserving systems. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys. 42 (2022), 665–690].

A fundamental question in the field of cohomology of dynamical systems is to determine when there are solutions to the coboundary equation:

$$ \begin{align*} f = g - g \circ T. \end{align*} $$

In many cases, T is given to be an ergodic invertible measure-preserving transformation on a standard probability space $(X, {\mathcal B}, \mu )$ and is contained in $L^p$ for $p \geq 0$. We extend previous results by showing for any measurable f that is non-zero on a set of positive measure, the class of measure-preserving T with a measurable solution g is meager (including the case where $\int _X f\,d\mu = 0$). From this fact, a natural question arises: given f, does there always exist a solution pair T and g? In regards to this question, our main results are as follows. Given measurable f, there exist an ergodic invertible measure-preserving transformation T and measurable function g such that $f(x) = g(x) - g(Tx)$ for almost every (a.e.) $x\in X$, if and only if $\int _{f> 0} f\,d\mu = - \int _{f < 0} f\,d\mu $ (whether finite or $\infty $). Given mean-zero $f \in L^p(\mu )$ for $p \geq 1$, there exist an ergodic invertible measure-preserving T and $g \in L^{p-1}(\mu )$ such that $f(x) = g(x) - g( Tx )$ for a.e. $x \in X$. In some sense, the previous existence result is the best possible. For $p \geq 1$, there exists a dense $G_{\delta }$ set of mean-zero $f \in L^p(\mu )$ such that for any ergodic invertible measure-preserving T and any measurable g such that $f(x) = g(x) - g(Tx)$ almost everywhere, then $g \notin L^q(\mu )$ for $q> p - 1$. Finally, it is shown that we cannot expect finite moments for solutions g, when $f \in L^1(\mu )$. In particular, given any such that $\lim _{x\to \infty } \phi (x) = \infty $, there exist mean-zero $f \in L^1(\mu )$ such that for any solutions T and g, the transfer function g satisfies:

$$ \begin{align*} \int_{X} \phi ( | g(x) | )\,d\mu = \infty. \end{align*} $$

It is shown that each locally compact second countable non-(T) group G admits non-strongly ergodic weakly mixing IDPFT Poisson actions of any possible Krieger type. These actions are amenable if and only if G is amenable. If G has the Haagerup property, then (and only then) these actions can be chosen of 0-type. If G is amenable, then G admits weakly mixing Bernoulli actions of arbitrary Krieger type.

We prove an extension of the Moore–Schmidt theorem on the triviality of the first cohomology class of cocycles for the action of an arbitrary discrete group on an arbitrary measure space and for cocycles with values in an arbitrary compact Hausdorff abelian group. The proof relies on a ‘conditional’ Pontryagin duality for spaces of abstract measurable maps.

We prove that if two topologically free and entropy regular actions of countable sofic groups on compact metrizable spaces are continuously orbit equivalent, and each group either (i) contains a w-normal amenable subgroup which is neither locally finite nor virtually cyclic, or (ii) is a non-locally-finite product of two infinite groups, then the actions have the same sofic topological entropy. This fact is then used to show that if two free uniquely ergodic and entropy regular probability-measure-preserving actions of such groups are boundedly orbit equivalent then the actions have the same sofic measure entropy. Our arguments are based on a relativization of property SC to sofic approximations and yield more general entropy inequalities.