Non-conventional ergodic averages for several commuting actions of an amenable group

Tim Austin

Published 2013-09-17, updated 2014-06-19Version 4

Let $(X,\mu)$ be a probability space, $G$ a countable amenable group and $(F_n)_n$ a left F\o lner sequence in $G$. This paper analyzes the non-conventional ergodic averages \[\frac{1}{|F_n|}\sum_{g \in F_n}\prod_{i=1}^d (f_i\circ T_1^g\cdots T_i^g)\] associated to a commuting tuple of $\mu$-preserving actions $T_1$, ..., $T_d:G\curvearrowright X$ and $f_1$, ..., $f_d \in L^\infty(\mu)$. We prove that these averages always converge in $\|\cdot\|_2$, and that they witness a multiple recurrence phenomenon when $f_1 = \ldots = f_d = 1_A$ for a non-negligible set $A\subseteq X$. This proves a conjecture of Bergelson, McCutcheon and Zhang. The proof relies on an adaptation from earlier works of the machinery of sated extensions.