For $\unicode{x3bb}>1$, we consider the locally free ${\mathbb Z}\ltimes _\unicode{x3bb} \mathbb R$ actions on $\mathbb T^2$. We show that if the action is $C^r$ with $r\geq 2$, then it is $C^{r-\epsilon }$-conjugate to an affine action generated by a hyperbolic automorphism and a linear translation flow along the expanding eigen-direction of the automorphism. In contrast, there exists a $C^{1+\alpha }$-action which is semi-conjugate, but not topologically conjugate to an affine action.

Let G be a torsion-free, finitely generated, nilpotent and metabelian group. In this work, we show that G embeds into the group of orientation-preserving $C^{1+\alpha }$-diffeomorphisms of the compact interval for all $\alpha < 1/k$, where k is the torsion-free rank of $G/A$ and A is a maximal abelian subgroup. We show that, in many situations, the corresponding $1/k$ is critical in the sense that there is no embedding of G with higher regularity. A particularly nice family where this happens is the family of $(2n+1)$-dimensional Heisenberg groups, for which we can show that the critical regularity is equal to $1+1/n$.

We prove that every genuinely partially hyperbolic $\mathbb {Z}^r$-action by toral automorphisms can be perturbed in $C^1$-topology, so that the resulting action is continuously conjugate, but not $C^1$-conjugate, to the original one.

We prove the Girth Alternative for finitely generated subgroups of $PL_o(I)$. We also prove that a finitely generated subgroup of Homeo$_{+}(I)$ which is sufficiently rich with hyperbolic-like elements has infinite girth.

Let $\alpha $ be a $C^{\infty }$ volume-preserving action on a closed n-manifold M by a lattice $\Gamma $ in $\mathrm {SL}(n,\mathbb {R})$, $n\ge 3$. Assume that there is an element $\gamma \in \Gamma $ such that $\alpha (\gamma )$ admits a dominated splitting. We prove that the manifold M is diffeomorphic to the torus ${{\mathbb T}^{n}={\mathbb R}^{n}/{\mathbb Z}^{n}}$ and $\alpha $ is smoothly conjugate to an affine action. Anosov diffeomorphisms and partial hyperbolic diffeomorphisms admit a dominated splitting. We obtained a topological global rigidity when $\alpha $ is $C^{1}$. We also prove similar theorems for actions on $2n$-manifolds by lattices in $\textrm {Sp}(2n,{\mathbb R})$ with $n\ge 2$ and $\mathrm {SO}(n,n)$ with $n\ge 5$.

We find generalized conformal measures and equilibrium states for random dynamics generated by Ruelle expanding maps, under which the dynamics exhibits exponential decay of correlations. This extends results by Baladi [Correlation spectrum of quenched and annealed equilibrium states for random expanding maps. Comm. Math. Phys. 186 (1997), 671–700] and Carvalho et al [Semigroup actions of expanding maps. J. Stat. Phys. 116(1) (2017), 114–136], where the randomness is driven by an independent and identically distributed process and the phase space is assumed to be compact. We give applications in the context of weighted non-autonomous iterated function systems, free semigroup actions and introduce a boundary of equilibria for not necessarily free semigroup actions.

We present several applications of the weak specification property and certain topological Markov properties, recently introduced by Barbieri, García-Ramos, and Li [Markovian properties of continuous group actions: algebraic actions, entropy and the homoclinic group. Adv. Math. 397 (2022), 52], and implied by the pseudo-orbit tracing property, for general expansive group actions on compact spaces. First we show that any expansive action of a countable amenable group on a compact metrizable space satisfying the weak specification and strong topological Markov properties satisfies the Moore property, that is, every surjective endomorphism of such dynamical system is pre-injective. This together with an earlier result of Li (where the strong topological Markov property is not needed) of the Myhill property [Garden of Eden and specification. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys. 39 (2019), 3075–3088], which we also re-prove here, establishes the Garden of Eden theorem for all expansive actions of countable amenable groups on compact metrizable spaces satisfying the weak specification and strong topological Markov properties. We hint how to easily generalize this result even for uncountable amenable groups and general compact, not necessarily metrizable, spaces. Second, we generalize the recent result of Cohen [The large scale geometry of strongly aperiodic subshifts of finite type. Adv. Math. 308 (2017), 599–626] that any subshift of finite type of a finitely generated group having at least two ends has weakly periodic points. We show that every expansive action of such a group having a certain Markov topological property, again implied by the pseudo-orbit tracing property, has a weakly periodic point. If it has additionally the weak specification property, the set of such points is dense.

Let G be the group $\text {PAff}_{+}(\mathbb R/\mathbb Z)$ of piecewise affine circle homeomorphisms or the group ${\operatorname {\mathrm {Diff}}}^{{\kern1pt}\infty }(\mathbb R/\mathbb Z)$ of smooth circle diffeomorphisms. A constructive proof that all irrational rotations are distorted in G is given.

In this paper we study Zimmer's conjecture for $C^{1}$ actions of lattice subgroup of a higher-rank simple Lie group with finite center on compact manifolds. We show that when the rank of an uniform lattice is larger than the dimension of the manifold, then the action factors through a finite group. For lattices in ${\rm SL}(n, {{\mathbb {R}}})$, the dimensional bound is sharp.

We improve a recent construction of Andrés Navas to produce the first examples of $C^2$ -undistorted diffeomorphisms of the interval that are $C^{1+\alpha }$ -distorted (for every ${\alpha < 1}$ ). We do this via explicit computations due to the failure of an extension to class $C^{1+\alpha }$ of a classical lemma related to the work of Nancy Kopell.

In this paper we prove a perturbative result for a class of ${\mathbb Z}^2$ actions on Heisenberg nilmanifolds that have Diophantine properties. Along the way we prove cohomological rigidity and obtain a tame splitting for the cohomology with coefficients in smooth vector fields for such actions.

In this paper, we study the centralizer of a partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism on ${\mathbb T}^3$ which is homotopic to an Anosov automorphism, and we show that either its centralizer is virtually trivial or such diffeomorphism is smoothly conjugate to its linear part.

We consider continuous free semigroup actions generated by a family $(g_y)_{y \,\in \, Y}$ of continuous endomorphisms of a compact metric space $(X,d)$ , subject to a random walk $\mathbb P_\nu =\nu ^{\mathbb N}$ defined on a shift space $Y^{\mathbb N}$ , where $(Y, d_Y)$ is a compact metric space with finite upper box dimension and $\nu $ is a Borel probability measure on Y. With the aim of elucidating the impact of the random walk on the metric mean dimension, we prove a variational principle which relates the metric mean dimension of the semigroup action with the corresponding notions for the associated skew product and the shift map $\sigma $ on $Y^{\mathbb {N}}$ , and compare them with the upper box dimension of Y. In particular, we obtain exact formulas whenever $\nu $ is homogeneous and has full support. We also discuss several examples to enlighten the roles of the homogeneity, of the support and of the upper box dimension of the measure $\nu $ , and to test the scope of our results.

We say that a group G of local (maybe formal) biholomorphisms satisfies the uniform intersection property if the intersection multiplicity $(\phi (V), W)$ takes only finitely many values as a function of G for any choice of analytic sets V and W of complementary dimension. In dimension $2$ we show that G satisfies the uniform intersection property if and only if it is finitely determined – that is, if there exists a natural number k such that different elements of G have different Taylor expansions of degree k at the origin. We also prove that G is finitely determined if and only if the action of G on the space of germs of analytic curves has discrete orbits.

Let $M\stackrel {\rho _0}{\curvearrowleft }S$ be a $C^\infty $ locally free action of a connected simply connected solvable Lie group S on a closed manifold M. Roughly speaking, $\rho _0$ is parameter rigid if any $C^\infty $ locally free action of S on M having the same orbits as $\rho _0$ is $C^\infty $ conjugate to $\rho _0$ . In this paper we prove two types of result on parameter rigidity.

First let G be a connected semisimple Lie group with finite center of real rank at least $2$ without compact factors nor simple factors locally isomorphic to $\mathop {\mathrm {SO}}\nolimits _0(n,1)(n\,{\geq}\, 2)$ or $\mathop {\mathrm {SU}}\nolimits (n,1)(n\geq 2)$ , and let $\Gamma $ be an irreducible cocompact lattice in G. Let $G=KAN$ be an Iwasawa decomposition. We prove that the action $\Gamma \backslash G\curvearrowleft AN$ by right multiplication is parameter rigid. One of the three main ingredients of the proof is the rigidity theorems of Pansu, and Kleiner and Leeb on the quasi-isometries of Riemannian symmetric spaces of non-compact type.

Secondly we show that if $M\stackrel {\rho _0}{\curvearrowleft }S$ is parameter rigid, then the zeroth and first cohomology of the orbit foliation of $\rho _0$ with certain coefficients must vanish. This is a partial converse to the results in the author’s [Vanishing of cohomology and parameter rigidity of actions of solvable Lie groups. Geom. Topol. 21(1) (2017), 157–191], where we saw sufficient conditions for parameter rigidity in terms of vanishing of the first cohomology with various coefficients.

A Cantor action is a minimal equicontinuous action of a countably generated group $G$ on a Cantor space $X$. Such actions are also called generalized odometers in the literature. In this work, we introduce two new conjugacy invariants for Cantor actions, the stabilizer limit group and the centralizer limit group. An action is wild if the stabilizer limit group is an increasing sequence of stabilizer groups without bound and otherwise is said to be stable if this group chain is bounded. For Cantor actions by a finitely generated group $G$, we prove that stable actions satisfy a rigidity principle and furthermore show that the wild property is an invariant of the continuous orbit equivalence class of the action. A Cantor action is said to be dynamically wild if it is wild and the centralizer limit group is a proper subgroup of the stabilizer limit group. This property is also a conjugacy invariant and we show that a Cantor action with a non-Hausdorff element must be dynamically wild. We then give examples of wild Cantor actions with non-Hausdorff elements, using recursive methods from geometric group theory to define actions on the boundaries of trees.

We prove a Tits alternative for topological full groups of minimal actions of finitely generated groups. On the one hand, we show that topological full groups of minimal actions of virtually cyclic groups are amenable. By doing so, we generalize the result of Juschenko and Monod for $\mathbf{Z}$-actions. On the other hand, when a finitely generated group $G$ is not virtually cyclic, then we construct a minimal free action of $G$ on a Cantor space such that the topological full group contains a non-abelian free group.

In this article, we consider a twisted partial action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ of a group $G$ on an associative ring $R$ and its associated partial crossed product $R\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}^{w}G$. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the commutativity of $R\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}^{w}G$ when the twisted partial action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ is unital. Moreover, we study necessary and sufficient conditions for the simplicity of $R\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}^{w}G$ in the following cases: (i) $G$ is abelian; (ii) $R$ is maximal commutative in $R\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}^{w}G$; (iii) $C_{R\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}^{w}G}(Z(R))$ is simple; (iv) $G$ is hypercentral. When $R=C_{0}(X)$ is the algebra of continuous functions defined on a locally compact and Hausdorff space $X$, with complex values that vanish at infinity, and $C_{0}(X)\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}G$ is the associated partial skew group ring of a partial action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ of a topological group $G$ on $C_{0}(X)$, we study the simplicity of $C_{0}(X)\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}G$ by using topological properties of $X$ and the results about the simplicity of $R\ast _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}^{w}G$.

A classic result due to Furstenberg is the strict ergodicity of the horocycle flow for a compact hyperbolic surface. Strict ergodicity is unique ergodicity with respect to a measure of full support, and therefore it implies minimality. The horocycle flow has been previously studied on minimal foliations by hyperbolic surfaces on closed manifolds, where it is known not to be minimal in general. In this paper, we prove that for the special case of Riemannian foliations, strict ergodicity of the horocycle flow still holds. This, in particular, proves that this flow is minimal, which establishes a conjecture proposed by Matsumoto. The main tool is a theorem due to Coudène, which he presented as an alternative proof for the surface case. It applies to two continuous flows defining a measure-preserving action of the affine group of the line on a compact metric space, precisely matching the foliated setting. In addition, we briefly discuss the application of Coudène’s theorem to other kinds of foliations.

The group of ${\mathcal{C}}^{1}$ -diffeomorphisms of any sparse Cantor subset of a manifold is countable and discrete (possibly trivial). Thompson’s groups come out of this construction when we consider central ternary Cantor subsets of an interval. Brin’s higher-dimensional generalizations $nV$ of Thompson’s group $V$ arise when we consider products of central ternary Cantor sets. We derive that the ${\mathcal{C}}^{2}$ -smooth mapping class group of a sparse Cantor sphere pair is a discrete countable group and produce this way versions of the braided Thompson groups.