Oseledec multiplicative ergodic theorem for laminations

Viet-Anh Nguyen

Published 2014-03-28, updated 2015-04-28Version 2

Given a n-dimensional lamination endowed with a Riemannian metric, we introduce the notion of a multiplicative cocycle of rank d, where n and d are arbitrary positive integers. The holonomy cocycle of a foliation and its exterior powers as well as its tensor powers provide examples of multiplicative cocycles. Next, we define the Lyapunov exponents of such a cocycle with respect to a harmonic probability measure directed by the lamination. We also prove an Oseledec multiplicative ergodic theorem in this context. This theorem implies the existence of an Oseledec decomposition almost everywhere which is holonomy invariant. Moreover, in the case of differentiable cocycles, we establish effective integral estimates for the Lyapunov exponents. These results find applications in the geometric and dynamical theory of laminations. They are also applicable to (not necessarily closed) laminations with singularities. Interesting holonomy properties of a generic leaf of a foliation are obtained. The main ingredients of our method are the theory of Brownian motion, the analysis of the heat diffusions on Riemannian manifolds, the ergodic theory in discrete dynamics and a geometric study of laminations.