Related papers: On deformations of free groups in compact Lie grou…

We consider actions of non-compact simple Lie groups preserving an analytic rigid geometric structure of algebraic type on a compact manifold. The structure is not assumed to be unimodular, so an invariant measure may not exist. Ergodic…

We show that a surface group of high genus contained in a classical simple Lie group can be deformed to become Zariski dense, unless the Lie group is $SU(p,q)$ (resp. $SO^* (2n)$, $n$ odd) and the surface group is maximal in some…

We prove that a free group F_2 admits a faithful discrete representation into Diff_{+}(I). We also prove that F_2 admits a faithful discrete representation into Homeo_{+}(I). Some properties of these representations have been studied. In…

We study the ergodicity of non-autonomous discrete dynamical systems with non-uniform expansion. As an application we get that any uniformly expanding finitely generated semigroup action of $C^{1+\alpha}$ local diffeomorphisms of a compact…

We provide the first known example of a finite group action on an oriented surface $T$ that is free, orientation-preserving, and does not extend to an arbitrary (in particular, possibly non-free) orientation-preserving action on any compact…

We characterize group compactifications of discrete groups for which there exists an equivariant retraction onto the boundary. In particular, we prove an equivariant analogue of Brouwer's No-Retraction theorem for large classes of group…

Let $M^{r}$ be a connected orientable manifold with the Euler characteristic $\chi(M)\not \equiv 0\operatorname{mod}6$. Denote by $\mathrm{SAut}(F_{n})$ the unique subgroup of index two in the automorphism group of a free group. Then any…

We are interested in the class, in the Elie Cartan sense, of left invariant forms on a Lie group. We construct the class of Lie algebras provided with a contact form and classify the frobeniusian Lie algebras up to a contraction. We also…

We show that random Cayley graphs of finite simple (or semisimple) groups of Lie type of fixed rank are expanders. The proofs are based on the Bourgain-Gamburd method and on the main result of our companion paper, establishing strongly…

We study the hyperbolicity properties of the action of a non-elementary automorphism group on a compact complex surface, with an emphasis on K3 and Enriques surfaces. A first result is that when such a group contains parabolic elements,…

We study the $t$-deformation of gaussian von Neumann algebras. They appear as example in the theories of Interacting Fock spaces and conditionally free products. When the number of generators is fixed, it is proved that if $t$ sufficiently…

Using percolation techniques, Gaboriau and Lyons recently proved that every countable, discrete, nonamenable group $\Gamma$ contains measurably the free group $\mathbf F_2$ on two generators: there exists a probability measure-preserving,…

We show that the maximal orbit dimension of a simultaneous Lie group action on n copies of a manifold does not pseudo-stabilize when n increases. We also show that if a Lie group action is (locally) effective on subsets of a manifold, then…

We establish effective versions of Oppenheim's conjecture for generic inhomogeneous quadratic forms. We prove such results for fixed quadratic forms and generic shifts. Our results complement our companion paper where we considered generic…

We give a characterization of flat affine connections on manifolds by means of a natural affine representation of the universal covering of the Lie group of diffeomorphisms preserving the connection. From the infinitesimal point of view,…

We prove a number of property (T) permanence results for locally compact quantum groups under exact sequences and the presence of invariant states, analogous to their classical versions. Along the way we characterize the existence of…

A topological group $G$ is extremely amenable if every continuous action of $G$ on a compact space has a fixed point. Using the concentration of measure techniques developed by Gromov and Milman, we prove that the group of automorphisms of…

Let $N$ be a connected and simply connected nilpotent Lie group, $\Lambda$ a lattice in $N$, and $X=N/\Lambda$ the corresponding nilmanifold. Let $Aff(X)$ be the group of affine transformations of $X$. We characterize the countable…

This work discovers a novel link between probability theory (of stable random fields) and von Neumann algebras. It is established that the group measure space construction corresponding to a minimal representation is an invariant of a…

We prove a compactness theorem for automorphisms of free groups. Namely, we show that the set of automorphisms keeping bounded the length of the uniform current is compact (up to conjugation.) This implies that the spectrum of the length of…