Sur les espaces mesures singuliers II - Etude spectrale

Abstract

We are mainly interested here in Kazhdan's property T for measured equivalence relations. Among our main results are characterizations of strong ergodicity and Kazhdan's property in terms of the spectra of diffusion operators, associated to random walks and hilbertian representations of the underlying equivalence relation. The analog spectral characterization of property T for countable groups was proved recently by Gromov \cite{Gromov03} (and Ghys \cite{Ghys03}). Our proof put together the tools developed in the group case and further crucial technical steps from the study of amenable equivalence relations in \cite{CFW81}. As an application we show how \.Zuk's "$\lambda_1 >1/2$" criterion for property T can be adapted to measured equivalence relations.