Algebraic hull of maximal measurable cocycles of surface groups into Hermitian Lie groups (2004.04965v2)

Abstract: Following the work of Burger, Iozzi and Wienhard for representations, in this paper we introduce the notion of maximal measurable cocycles of a surface group. More precisely, let $\mathbf{G}$ be a semisimple algebraic $\mathbb{R}$-group such that $G=\mathbf{G}(\mathbb{R})^\circ$ is of Hermitian type. If $\Gamma \leq L$ is a torsion-free lattice of a finite connected covering of $\text{PU}(1,1)$, given a standard Borel probability $\Gamma$-space $(\Omega,\mu_\Omega)$, we introduce the notion of Toledo invariant for a measurable cocycle $\sigma:\Gamma \times \Omega \rightarrow G$. The Toledo remains unchanged along $G$-cohomology classes and its absolute value is bounded by the rank of $G$. This allows to define maximal measurable cocycles. We show that the algebraic hull $\mathbf{H}$ of a maximal cocycle $\sigma$ is reductive and the centralizer of $H=\mathbf{H}(\mathbb{R})^\circ$ is compact. If additionally $\sigma$ admits a boundary map, then $H$ is of tube type and $\sigma$ is cohomologous to a cocycle stabilizing a unique maximal tube-type subdomain. This result is analogous to the one obtained for representations. In the particular case $G=\text{PU}(n,1)$ maximality is sufficient to prove that $\sigma$ is cohomologous to a cocycle preserving a complex geodesic. We conclude with some remarks about boundary maps of maximal Zariski dense cocycles.