Abstract : We study the analogue in orbit equivalence of free product decomposition and free indecomposability for countable groups. We introduce the (orbit equivalence invariant) notion of freely indecomposable ({\FI}) standard probability measure preserving equivalence relations and establish a criterion to check it, namely non-hyperfiniteness and vanishing of the first $L^2$-Betti number. We obtain Bass-Serre rigidity results, \textit{i.e.} forms of uniqueness in free product decompositions of equivalence relations with ({\FI}) components. The main features of our work are weak algebraic assumptions and no ergodicity hypothesis for the components. We deduce, for instance, that a measure equivalence between two free products of non-amenable groups with vanishing first $\ell^2$-Betti numbers is induced by measure equivalences of the components. We also deduce new classification results in Orbit Equivalence and II$_1$ factors.
https://hal-ens-lyon.archives-ouvertes.fr/ensl-00288583
Contributor : Damien Gaboriau
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Submitted on : Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 11:39:30 PM
Last modification on : Tuesday, November 19, 2019 - 11:47:46 AM
Long-term archiving on: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 - 12:03:01 PM
