Determining subgroups via stationary measures

Abstract

In this paper, we consider random walks on the isometry groups of general metric spaces. Under some mild conditions, we show that if two non-elementary random walks on a discrete subgroup of the isometry group have non-singular stationary measures, then subgroups generated by the random walks are commensurable. This result in particular applies to Gromov hyperbolic spaces and Teichmüller spaces. As a specific application, we prove singularity between stationary measures associated to random walks on different fiber subgroups of the fundamental group of a hyperbolic 3-manifold fibering over the circle.

v4: 24 pages. Final version. To appear in IMRN