Flag Structures on Seifert Manifolds

We consider faithful projective actions of a cocompact lattice of SL(2,R) on the projective plane, with the following property: there is a common fixed point, which is a saddle fixed point for every element of infinite order of the the group. Typical examples of such an action are linear actions, ie, when the action arises from a morphism of the group into GL(2,R), viewed as the group of linear transformations of a copy of the affine plane in RP^{2}. We prove that in the general situation, such an action is always topologically linearisable, and that the linearisation is Lipschitz if and only if it is projective. This result is obtained through the study of a certain family of flag structures on Seifert manifolds. As a corollary, we deduce some dynamical properties of the transversely affine flows obtained by deformations of horocyclic flows. In particular, these flows are not minimal.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol5/paper7.abs.htm

Simple root flows for Hitchin representations

We study simple root flows and Liouville currents for Hitchin representations. We show that the Liouville current is associated to the measure of maximal entropy for a simple root flow, derive a Liouville volume rigidity result, and construct a Liouville pressure metric on the Hitchin component.Comment: Dedicated to Bill Goldman on the occasion of his 60th birthda

Differential Rigidity of Anosov Actions of Higher Rank Abelian Groups and Algebraic Lattice Actions

We show that most homogeneous Anosov actions of higher rank Abelian groups are locally smoothly rigid (up to an automorphism). This result is the main part in the proof of local smooth rigidity for two very different types of algebraic actions of irreducible lattices in higher rank semisimple Lie groups: (i) the Anosov actions by automorphisms of tori and nil-manifolds, and (ii) the actions of cocompact lattices on Furstenberg boundaries, in particular, projective spaces. The main new technical ingredient in the proofs is the use of a proper "non-stationary" generalization of the classical theory of normal forms for local contractions.Comment: 28 pages, LaTe

The Polish topology of the isometry group of the infinite dimensional hyperbolic space

We consider the isometry group of the infinite dimensional separable hyperbolic space with its Polish topology. This topology is given by the pointwise convergence. For non-locally compact Polish groups, some striking phenomena like automatic continuity or extreme amenability may happen. Our leading idea is to compare this topological group with usual Lie groups on one side and with non-Archimedean infinite dimensional groups like $\mathcal{S}_\infty$, the group of all permutations of a countable set on the other side. Our main results are Automatic continuity (any homomorphism to a separable group is continuous), minimality of the Polish topology, identification of its universal Furstenberg boundary as the closed unit ball of a separable Hilbert space with its weak topology, identification of its universal minimal flow as the completion of some suspension of the action of the additive group of the reals on its universal minimal flow. All along the text, we lead a parallel study with the sibling group of isometries of a separable Hilbert space.Comment: After a first version of this paper, Todor Tsankov asked if the topology is minimal. A positive answer has been added to this second versio