A lecture on Invariant Random Subgroups

Invariant random subgroups (IRS) are conjugacy invariant probability measures on the space of subgroups in a given group G. They can be regarded both as a generalization of normal subgroups as well as a generalization of lattices. As such, it is intriguing to extend results from the theories of normal subgroups and of lattices to the context of IRS. Another approach is to analyse and then use the space IRS(G) as a compact G-space in order to establish new results about lattices. The second approach has been taken in the work [7s12], that came to be known as the seven samurai paper. In these lecture notes we shall try to give a taste of both approaches.