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I'm wondering whether the action of $\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}$ on $S^1$ by multiplication is ergodic. Note that this question is equivalent to each one of the following two statements

  1. Is every measureable function $f:S^1\rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ which is invariant under the action of $\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}$ is constant almost everywhere

  2. For every measureable set $A$ of positive measure, $\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}\cdot A$ is of full measure.

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    $\begingroup$ You need to specify "ergodic with respect to what (invariant) measure?" $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 15:20

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I am interpreting the question as follows: consider $S^1$ as $\mathbb{R} / \mathbb{Z}$ with its usual group operation (translation), to be denoted $+$. When you say "$f$ is invariant under $\mathbb{Q} / \mathbb{Z}$", I take that to mean "for every $y \in S^1$ and every $x \in \mathbb{Q} /\mathbb{Z}$, we have $f(y) = f(x+y)$".

As you say, it's sufficient to assume $f$ is bounded (or even an indicator function). For $x \in S^1$, let $\tau_x f(y) =f(x+y)$ be the translation by $x$ and consider $x \mapsto \tau_x f$ as a map from $S^1$ to $L^1(S^1)$. It's standard to show this map is continuous. (It would be easy if $f$ were (uniformly) continuous; otherwise, use the density of $C(S^1)$ in $L^1(S^1)$ and the triangle inequality.) Since $f = \tau_x f$ a.e. for all $x \in \mathbb{Q} / \mathbb{Z}$, we have the same for all $x \in S^1$.

Consider the set $A = \{(x,y) \in (S^1)^2 : f(y) = f(x+y)\}.$ Clearly $A$ is measurable, and we just showed the section $A_x$ is null for every $x$. So by Fubini, $A$ is null; in particular there exists $y_0$ such that the section $A^{y_0}$ is null. This means that $f(y_0) = f(x+y_0)$ for almost every $x$, which is to say $f$ is a.e. constant.

(There should be a neater way to do this by interchanging integrals and thus showing that $f$ equals its average value almost everywhere. I haven't had enough coffee yet to sort it through, so I leave it as an exercise. :-)

I think this would go through for any dense subset of a compact group.

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  • $\begingroup$ You seem to assume that the OP wanted Lebesgue measure, but this measure isn't even invariant (let alone ergodic). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 15:19
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    $\begingroup$ ... that is, unless the OP was asking about what you would normally call translation on the circle, but that doesn't sound like a question for MO. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 15:29
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    $\begingroup$ @Remling. Indeed this is the only interpretation I can think of. ${{\bf Q}/ {\bf Z}}$ does not act by multiplication on the circle ${{\bf R}/ {\bf Z}}$. Actually $x\mapsto {1\over 2}x$ does not act continuously on the circle. $\endgroup$
    – coudy
    Commented Mar 29, 2017 at 16:30

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