On spectra of unitary groups arising from cocycles

Abstract

In a paper entitled cocycles and spectra Helson and Par ry prove that for every T there exists a q~ such that V ~ has Lebesgue spectrum, moreover q~ can be chosen to be real, i.e., taking values + 1 and 1. The purpose of this paper is to extend this result to certain actions of countable groups which includes ergodic non-singular actions of countable abelian groups. We blend the method of Helson and Parry with the notions of weak equivalence and weak von Neumann transformations. In section 3 and 4 we discuss these results in connection with systems of imprimitivity. The problem of extending the result quoted above to countable groups was raised by H. Helson to one of us. It is a pleasure to acknowledge his interest and encouragement in this work.