Maximal ergodic theorems for some group actions

We prove maximal ergodic inequalities for a sequence of operators and for their averages in the noncommutative Lp-space. We also obtain the corresponding individual ergodic theorems. Applying these results to actions of a free group on a von Neumann algebra, we get noncommutative analogues of maximal ergodic inequalities and pointwise ergodic theorems of Nevo–Stein. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.