Ergodic Theory

The course will be an introduction to the theory of measure-preserving group
actions on probability spaces. Topics will include ergodicity, weak mixing, tilings,
orbit equivalence, and entropy. Emphasis will be given to the relationship between these
dynamical phenomena and structural properties of groups such as amenability, property (T),
and soficity. No background in ergodic theory is required, but some basic functional analysis
will be assumed (e.g., operators on Hilbert space).