Answering a question by Chatterji–Druţu–Haglund, we prove that, for every locally compact group $G$, there exists a critical constant $p_G \in [0,\infty ]$ such that $G$ admits a continuous affine isometric action on an $L_p$ space ($0< p<\infty$) with unbounded orbits if and only if $p \geq p_G$. A similar result holds for the existence of proper continuous affine isometric actions on $L_p$ spaces. Using a representation of cohomology by harmonic cocycles, we also show that such unbounded orbits cannot occur when the linear part comes from a measure-preserving action, or more generally a state-preserving action on a von Neumann algebra and $p>2$. We also prove the stability of this critical constant $p_G$ under $L_p$ measure equivalence, answering a question of Fisher.

It is proved that each Gaussian cocycle over a mildly mixing Gaussian transformation is either a Gaussian coboundary or sharply weak mixing. The class of non-singular infinite direct products T of transformations $T_n$ , $n\in \mathbb N$ , of finite type is studied. It is shown that if $T_n$ is mildly mixing, $n\in \mathbb N$ , the sequence of Radon–Nikodym derivatives of $T_n$ is asymptotically translation quasi-invariant and T is conservative then the Maharam extension of T is sharply weak mixing. This technique provides a new approach to the non-singular Gaussian transformations studied recently by Arano, Isono and Marrakchi.