Geometric lattice actions, entropy and fundamental groups

.   Let be a lattice in a noncompact simple Lie Group G, where . Suppose acts analytically and ergodically on a compact manifold M preserving a unimodular rigid geometric structure (e.g. a connection and a volume). We show that either the action is isometric or there exists a "large image" linear representation of . Under an additional assumption on the dynamics of the action, we associate to a virtual arithmetic quotient of full entropy.