Modular actions and amenable representations

Abstract

Consider a measure-preserving action Γ ↷ (X, μ) of a countable group Γ and a measurable cocycle α: X × Γ → Aut(Y) with countable image, where (X, μ) is a standard Lebesgue space and (Y, ν) is any probability space. We prove that if the Koopman representation associated to the action Γ ↷ X is non-amenable, then there does not exist a countable-to-one Borel homomorphism from the orbit equivalence relation of the skew product action Γ ↷^α X × Y to the orbit equivalence relation of any modular action (i.e., an inverse limit of actions on countable sets or, equivalently, an action on the boundary of a countably-splitting tree), generalizing previous results of Hjorth and Kechris. As an application, for certain groups, we connect antimodularity to mixing conditions. We also show that any countable, non-amenable, residually finite group induces at least three mutually orbit inequivalent free, measure-preserving, ergodic actions as well as two non-Borel bireducible ones.