Gaps of saddle connection directions for some branched covers of tori

We compute the gap distribution of directions of saddle connections for two classes of translation surfaces. One class will be the translation surfaces arising from gluing two identical tori along a slit. These yield the first explicit computations of gap distributions for non-lattice translation surfaces. We show that this distribution has support at zero and quadratic tail decay. We also construct examples of translation surfaces in any genus $d>1$ that have the same gap distribution as the gap distribution of two identical tori glued along a slit. The second class we consider are twice-marked tori and saddle connections between distinct marked points with a specific orientation. These results can be interpreted as the gap distribution of slopes of affine lattices. We obtain our results by translating the question of gap distributions to a dynamical question of return times to a transversal under the horocycle flow on an appropriate moduli space.

Rigidity of joinings for some measure-preserving systems

We introduce two properties: strong R-property and $C(q)$ -property, describing a special way of divergence of nearby trajectories for an abstract measure-preserving system. We show that systems satisfying the strong R-property are disjoint (in the sense of Furstenberg) with systems satisfying the $C(q)$ -property. Moreover, we show that if $u_t$ is a unipotent flow on $G/\Gamma $ with $\Gamma $ irreducible, then $u_t$ satisfies the $C(q)$ -property provided that $u_t$ is not of the form $h_t\times \operatorname {id}$ , where $h_t$ is the classical horocycle flow. Finally, we show that the strong R-property holds for all (smooth) time changes of horocycle flows and non-trivial time changes of bounded-type Heisenberg nilflows.

There are no deviations for the ergodic averages of Giulietti–Liverani horocycle flows on the two-torus

We show that the ergodic integrals for the horocycle flow on the two-torus associated by Giulietti and Liverani with an Anosov diffeomorphism either grow linearly or are bounded; in other words, there are no deviations. For this, we use the topological invariance of the Artin–Mazur zeta function to exclude resonances outside the open unit disc. Transfer operators acting on suitable spaces of anisotropic distributions and their Ruelle determinants are the key tools used in the proof. As a bonus, we show that for any $C^\infty $ Anosov diffeomorphism F on the two-torus, the correlations for the measure of maximal entropy and $C^\infty $ observables decay with a rate strictly smaller than $e^{-h_{\mathrm {top}}(F)}$ . We compare our results with very recent related work of Forni.

On $C^*$-algebras associated to actions of discrete subgroups of $\operatorname{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ on the punctured plane

Dynamical conditions that guarantee stability for discrete transformation group $C^*$-algebras are determined. The results are applied to the case of some discrete subgroups of $\operatorname{SL} (2,\mathbb{R} )$ acting on the punctured plane by means of matrix multiplication of vectors. In the case of cocompact subgroups, further properties of such crossed products are deduced from properties of the $C^*$-algebra associated to the horocycle flow on the corresponding compact homogeneous space of $\operatorname{SL} (2,\mathbb{R} )$.

A solution to Flinn’s conjecture on weakly expansive flows

In L. W. Flinn’s PhD thesis published in 1972, the author conjectured that weakly expansive flows are also expansive flows. In this paper we use the horocycle flow on compact Riemann surfaces of constant negative curvature to show that Flinn’s conjecture is not true.

Effective Equidistribution of the Horocycle Flow on Geometrically Finite Hyperbolic Surfaces

We prove effective equidistribution of the horocycle flow in the unit tangent bundle of infinite-volume geometrically finite hyperbolic surfaces.

Unique ergodicity of the horocycle flow on Riemannnian foliations

A classic result due to Furstenberg is the strict ergodicity of the horocycle flow for a compact hyperbolic surface. Strict ergodicity is unique ergodicity with respect to a measure of full support, and therefore it implies minimality. The horocycle flow has been previously studied on minimal foliations by hyperbolic surfaces on closed manifolds, where it is known not to be minimal in general. In this paper, we prove that for the special case of Riemannian foliations, strict ergodicity of the horocycle flow still holds. This, in particular, proves that this flow is minimal, which establishes a conjecture proposed by Matsumoto. The main tool is a theorem due to Coudène, which he presented as an alternative proof for the surface case. It applies to two continuous flows defining a measure-preserving action of the affine group of the line on a compact metric space, precisely matching the foliated setting. In addition, we briefly discuss the application of Coudène’s theorem to other kinds of foliations.

Pointwise equidistribution and translates of measures on homogeneous spaces

Let $(X,\mathfrak{B},\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})$ be a Borel probability space. Let $T_{n}:X\rightarrow X$ be a sequence of continuous transformations on $X$. Let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$ be a probability measure on $X$ such that $(1/N)\sum _{n=1}^{N}(T_{n})_{\ast }\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ in the weak-$\ast$ topology. Under general conditions, we show that for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$ almost every $x\in X$, the measures $(1/N)\sum _{n=1}^{N}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}_{T_{n}x}$ become equidistributed towards $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ if $N$ is restricted to a set of full upper density. We present applications of these results to translates of closed orbits of Lie groups on homogeneous spaces. As a corollary, we prove equidistribution of exponentially sparse orbits of the horocycle flow on quotients of $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$, starting from every point in almost every direction.