This paper studies classes in Moore's measurable cohomology theory for
locally compact groups and Polish modules. An elementary dimension-shifting
argument is used to show that all such classes have representatives with
considerable extra topological structure beyond measurability. Based on this
idea, for certain target modules one can also construct a direct comparison map
with a different cohomology theory for topological groups defined by Segal, and
show that this map is an isomorphism.
Let $\H$ denote the discrete Heisenberg group, equipped with a word metric
$d_W$ associated to some finite symmetric generating set. We show that if
$(X,\|\cdot\|)$ is a $p$-convex Banach space then for any Lipschitz function
$f:\H\to X$ there exist $x,y\in \H$ with $d_W(x,y)$ arbitrarily large and
\begin{equation}\label{eq:comp abs} \frac{\|f(x)-f(y)\|}{d_W(x,y)}\lesssim
\left(\frac{\log\log d_W(x,y)}{\log d_W(x,y)}\right)^{1/p}. \end{equation}
In an important sequence of papers, Calvin Moore developed a version of group
cohomology for locally compact groups taking into account their topology. He
was able to re-establish most of the standard algebraic properties of group
cohomology in the category of Polish Abelian modules for such groups, building
initially on a bar resolution restricted to Borel cochains. However, the
resulting cohomology groups can have rather unwieldy topological properties,
and it remained mostly unclear whether they behave well under forming inverse
limits of a sequence of base groups.
The Furstenberg recurrence theorem (or equivalently, Szemer\'edi's theorem)
can be formulated in the language of von Neumann algebras as follows: given an
integer $k \geq 2$, an abelian finite von Neumann algebra $(\M,\tau)$ with an
automorphism $\alpha: \M \to \M$, and a non-negative $a \in \M$ with
$\tau(a)>0$, one has $\liminf_{N \to \infty} \frac{1}{N} \sum_{n=1}^N \Re
\tau(a \alpha^n (a) ... \alpha^{(k-1)n} (a)) > 0$; a subsequent result of Host
and Kra shows that this limit exists. In particular, $\Re \tau(a \alpha^n (a)
>...
This paper is the second of three in which we develop and use some general
machinery for constructing pleasant extensions for certain nonconventional
ergodic averages associated to probability-preserving systems.
This is the last of three papers (following arXiv:0905.0518 and
arXiv:0910.0907) in which we develop and use some general machinery for
extending probability-preserving \bbZ^d-systems so as to obtain simplified
asymptotic behaviour for certain associated nonconventional ergodic averages.
In this third part we will use the results of the first two to obtain an
extension of an arbitrary probability-preserving \bbZ^2-system (X,\mu,T_1,T_2)
in which the associated sequences of quadratic nonconventional averages
\frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=1}^N (f
This is the last of three papers (following arXiv:0905.0518 and
arXiv:0910.0907) in which we develop and use some general machinery for
extending probability-preserving \bbZ^d-systems so as to obtain simplified
asymptotic behaviour for certain associated nonconventional ergodic averages.
In this third part we will use the results of the first two to obtain an
extension of an arbitrary probability-preserving \bbZ^2-system (X,\mu,T_1,T_2)
in which the associated sequences of quadratic nonconventional averages
\frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=1}^N (f
We prove that there are examples of finitely generated groups G together with
group ring elements Q \in \bbQ G for which the von Neumann dimension
\dim_{LG}\ker Q is irrational, so (in conjunction with other known results)
disproving a conjecture of Atiyah.