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In this note we study countable subgroups of the full group of a measure preserving equivalence relation. We provide various constraints on the group structure, the nature of the action, and on the measure of fixed point sets, that imply that the subgroup topology is not discrete. We mention various conjectures about discrete subgroups of full groups., Comment: 25 pages

We extend Dye's reconstruction theorem, which classifies isomorphisms between full groups, to a classification of homomorphisms between full groups. For full groups of ergodic p.m.p. equivalence relations, our result roughly says that such homomorphisms come only from actions of the equivalence relation, or of one of its symmetric powers. This has several rigidity consequences for homomorphisms between full groups. Our main application is a characterization of property (T) for ergodic p.m.p. equivalence relations purely in full group terms, without using their topology: an ergodic p.m.p. equivalence relation has (T) iff all non-free ergodic boolean actions of its full group are strongly ergodic., Comment: Submitted version, with updated abstract and expanded introduction. 57 pages. Comments welcome!

Given a Baumslag-Solitar group, we study its space of subgroups from a topological and dynamical perspective. We first determine its perfect kernel (the largest closed subset without isolated points). We then bring to light a natural partition of the space of subgroups into one closed subset and countably many open subsets that are invariant under the action by conjugation. One of our main results is that the restriction of the action to each piece is topologically transitive. This partition is described by an arithmetically defined function, that we call the phenotype, with values in the positive integers or infinity. We eventually study the closure of each open piece and also the closure of their union. We moreover identify in each phenotype a (the) maximal compact invariant subspace., Comment: New version including the referee's suggestions. 63 pages

By classifying $S$-maximal amenable subgroups of algebraic groups over a global field of characteristic zero, we obtain a complete classification of maximal amenable subgroups up to commensurability in the respective arithmetic groups. Futhermore, we prove that these commensurably maximal amenable subgroups are singular and therefore give rise to maximal amenable von Neumann subalgebras., Comment: 19 pages, comments welcome

Belinskaya's theorem states that given an ergodic measure-preserving transformation, any other transformation with the same orbits and an $\mathrm{L}^1$ cocycle must be flip-conjugate to it. Our main result shows that this theorem is optimal: for all $p<1$ the integrability condition on the cocycle cannot be relaxed to being in $\mathrm{L}^p$. This also allows us to answer a question of Kerr and Li: for ergodic measure-preserving transformations, Shannon orbit equivalence doesn't boil down to flip-conjugacy., Comment: Some more fixes in the appendix; added a reference to M. Joseph's thesis in Remark 3.4. Final final version matching the online first version in Fundamenta Mathematicae

We study probability measure preserving (p.m.p.) non-free actions of free groups and the associated IRS's. The perfect kernel of a countable group Gamma is the largest closed subspace of the space of subgroups of Gamma without isolated points. We introduce the class of totipotent ergodic p.m.p. actions of Gamma: those for which almost every point-stabilizer has dense conjugacy class in the perfect kernel. Equivalently, the support of the associated IRS is as large as possible, namely it is equal to the whole perfect kernel. We prove that every ergodic p.m.p. equivalence relation R of cost $

We will prove that any sequence of lattices in a fixed locally compact group which satisfy the conclusion of the Stuck-Zimmer theorem is Farber., Comment: Comments welcome!

The aim of this work is to understand some of the asymptotic properties of sequences of lattices in a fixed locally compact group. In particular we will study the asymptotic growth of the Betti numbers of the lattices renormalized by the covolume and the rank gradient, the minimal number of generators also renormalized by the covolume. For doing so we will consider the ultraproduct of the sequence of actions of the locally compact group on the coset spaces and we will show how the properties of one of its cross sections are related to the asymptotic properties of the lattices., Comment: Final version, accepted in C. R. Math. Acad. Sci.. Major revision, many proofs were reworked and details were added. Most of Section 4 was rewritten. Minor changes to the main results

We consider probability measure preserving discrete groupoids, group actions and equivalence relations in the context of general probability spaces. We study for these objects the notions of cost, $\beta$-invariant and some higher-dimensional variants. We also propose various convergence results about $\ell^2$-Betti numbers and rank gradient for sequences of actions, groupoids or equivalence relations under weak finiteness assumptions. In particular we connect the combinatorial cost with the cost of the ultralimit equivalence relations. Finally a relative version of Stuck-Zimmer property is also considered., Comment: 64 pages; v2 and v3 small corrections and precisions added; final version, to appear in the Annales Henri Lebesgue

We consider the Polish group obtained as the rank-completion of an inductive limit of finite special linear groups. This Polish group is topologically simple modulo its center, it is extremely amenable and has no non-trivial strongly continuous unitary representation on a Hilbert space., Comment: Final version, accepted for publication in Annales de l'Institut Fourier. Improved exposition following the remarks of the unknown referee

We show that the topological rank of an orbit full group generated by an ergodic, probability measure-preserving free action of a non-discrete unimodular locally compact Polish group is two. For this, we use the existence of a cross section and show that for a locally compact Polish group, the full group generated by any dense subgroup is dense in the orbit full group of the action of the group. We prove that the orbit full group of a free action of a locally compact Polish group is extremely amenable if and only if the acting group is amenable, using the fact that the full group generates the von Neumann algebra of the action., Comment: 31 pages. Comments welcome!

In this work, we study pmp actions of countable groups on arbitrary diffuse probability spaces under the point of view of weak equivalence. We will show that any such an action is weakly equivalent to an action on a standard probability space. We also propose a metric on the space of actions modulo weak equivalence which is equivalent to the topology of Ab\'{e}rt and Elek. We will give a simpler proof of the compactness of the space, showing that convergence is characterized by ultraproducts. Using this topology, we will show that a profinite action is weakly equivalent to an ultraproduct of finite actions. Finally, combining our results with another result of Ab\'{e}rt and Elek, we will obtain a corollary about sofic entropy. We will show that for free groups and some property (T) groups, sofic entropy of profinite actions depends crucially on the chosen sofic approximation., Comment: 21 pages. Comments welcome!

We associate to every action of a Polish group on a standard probability space a Polish group that we call the orbit full group. For discrete groups, we recover the well-known full groups of pmp equivalence relations equipped with the uniform topology. However, there are many new examples, such as orbit full groups associated to measure preserving actions of locally compact groups. In fact, we show that such full groups are complete invariants of orbit equivalence. We give various characterizations of the existence of a dense conjugacy class for orbit full groups, and we show that the ergodic ones actually have a unique Polish group topology. Furthermore, we characterize ergodic full groups of countable pmp equivalence relations as those admitting non-trivial continuous character representations., Comment: Comments welcome!

We provide a general criterion to deduce maximal amenability of von Neumann subalgebras $L\Lambda \subset L\Gamma$ arising from amenable subgroups $\Lambda$ of discrete countable groups $\Gamma$. The criterion is expressed in terms of $\Lambda$-invariant measures on some compact $\Gamma$-space. The strategy of proof is different from S. Popa's approach to maximal amenability via central sequences [Po83], and relies on elementary computations in a crossed-product C*-algebra., Comment: 13 pages. Accepted for publication to Geometric and Functional Analysis

We prove that for any infinite, maximal amenable subgroup $H$ in a hyperbolic group $G$, the von Neumann subalgebra $LH$ is maximal amenable inside $LG$. It provides many new, explicit examples of maximal amenable subalgebras in II$_1$ factors. We also prove similar maximal amenability results for direct products of relatively hyperbolic groups and orbit equivalence relations arising from measure-preserving actions of such groups., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, new section added about direct products. Accepted for publication to Mathematische Annalen