Semisimplicity of the Lyapunov spectrum for irreducible cocycles

Alex Eskin, Carlos Matheus

Published 2013-08-31, updated 2015-09-21Version 3

Let $G$ be a semisimple Lie group acting on a space $X$, let $\mu$ be a compactly supported measure on $G$, and let $A$ be a strongly irreducible linear cocycle over the action of $G$. We then have a random walk on $X$, and let $T$ be the associated shift map. We show that the cocycle $A$ over the action of $T$ is conjugate to a block conformal cocycle. This statement is used in the recent paper by Eskin-Mirzakhani on the classifications of invariant measures for the SL(2,R) action on moduli space. The ingredients of the proof are essentially contained in the papers of Guivarch and Raugi and also Goldsheid and Margulis.