Product set phenomena for measured groups

TL;DR

This paper extends results on product set phenomena from amenable groups to general measured groups, revealing fundamental differences in behavior between Liouville and non-Liouville groups, with implications for ergodic theory.

Contribution

It generalizes product set results to measured groups and uncovers key differences in set behavior between Liouville and non-Liouville groups.

Findings

In free groups, large sets produce thick product sets with a finite set.

Certain large sets can have non-piecewise syndetic products.

In non-Liouville groups, $AA^{-1}$ may not be syndetic.

Abstract

Following the works of Furstenberg and Glasner on stationary means, we strengthen and extend in this paper some recent results by Di Nasso, Goldbring, Jin, Leth, Lupini and Mahlburg on piecewise syndeticity of product sets in countable \textsc{amenable} groups to general countable measured groups. We point out several fundamental differences between the behavior of products of "large" sets in Liouville and non-Liouville measured groups. As a (very) special case of our main results, we show that if $G$ is a free group of finite rank, and $A$ and $B$ are "spherically large" subsets of $G$, then there exists a finite set $F \subset G$ such that $AFB$ is thick. The position of the set $F$ is curious, but seems to be necessary; in fact, we can produce \emph{left thick} sets $A, B \subset G$ such that $B$ is "spherically large", but $AB$ is \emph{not} piecewise syndetic. On the other hand, if $A$ is spherically large, then $AA^{-1}$ is always piecewise syndetic \emph{and} left piecewise syndetic. However, contrary to what happens for amenable groups, $AA^{-1}$ may fail to be syndetic. The same phenomena occur for many other (even amenable, but non-Liouville) measured groups. Our proofs are based on some ergodic-theoretical results concerning stationary actions which should be of independent interest.