Determining subgroups via stationary measures
Geometric Topology
2026-01-08 v3 Dynamical Systems
Group Theory
Probability
Abstract
In this paper, we consider random walks on the isometry groups of general metric spaces. Under some mild conditions, we show that if two non-elementary random walks on a discrete subgroup of the isometry group have non-singular stationary measures, then subgroups generated by the random walks are commensurable. This result in particular applies to separable Gromov hyperbolic spaces and Teichm\"uller spaces. As a specific application, we prove singularity between stationary measures associated to random walks on different fiber subgroups of the fundamental group of a hyperbolic 3-manifold fibering over the circle.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.12966,
title = {Determining subgroups via stationary measures},
author = {Dongryul M. Kim and Andrew Zimmer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.12966},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
v3: 23 pages. Minor changes to introduction. Comments welcome!