# A Peter-Weyl theorem for compact group bundles and the geometric representation of relatively ergodic compact extensions

## TL;DR

This paper generalizes the characterization of relatively ergodic extensions with discrete spectrum as skew-products by bundles of compact homogeneous spaces, extending classical results to broader settings and establishing a Peter-Weyl-type theorem for such bundles.

## Contribution

It introduces a Peter-Weyl-type theorem for bundles of compact groups and characterizes extensions with discrete spectrum as skew-products in a general setting.

## Key findings

- Relatively ergodic extensions have relative discrete spectrum iff they are skew-products by compact homogeneous space bundles.
- Established a Peter-Weyl-type theorem for bundles of compact groups.
- Extended classical ergodic theory results to uncountable group actions without restrictions.

## Abstract

We show that a relatively ergodic extension of measure-preserving dynamical systems has relative discrete spectrum if and only if it can be represented as a skew-product by a bundle of compact homogeneous spaces. Our result holds without restrictions on the acting group or the underlying probability spaces. This generalizes previous work by Mackey, Zimmer, Ellis, Austin, and the second author and Tao, and is inspired by the Furstenberg-Zimmer and Host-Kra structure theories for actions of uncountable groups. Our approach translates the ergodic-theoretic question into topological dynamics, where we establish a corresponding classification: an extension in topological dynamics has relative discrete spectrum precisely when it admits a skew-product representation by bundles of compact homogeneous spaces. A key step in our argument is establishing a Peter-Weyl-type theorem for bundles of compact groups which might be of independent interest.