In this paper we study aspects of the ergodic theory of the geodesic flow on a non-compact negatively curved manifold. It is a well known fact that every continuous potential on a compact metric space has a maximizing measure. Unfortunately, for non-compact spaces this fact is not longer true. For the geodesic flow we provide a criterion that ensures the existence of a maximizing measure for uniformly continuous potentials. We prove that the only obstruction to the existence of a maximizing measure is the full escape of mass phenomenon. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first general result on the existence of maximizing measures for non-compact topological spaces which does not require the potential to be coercive. We study zero temperature limits of equilibrium measures for a suitable family of potentials. We prove some convergence and divergence results for the limiting behaviour of such measures. Among some consequences we obtain that the geodesic flow has the intermediate entropy property and that equilibrium states are dense in the space of invariant probability measures.
Let $M$ be a smooth compact surface of nonpositive curvature, with genus $\geq 2$. We prove the ergodicity of the geodesic flow on the unit tangent bundle of $M$ with respect to the Liouville measure under the condition that the set of points with negative curvature on $M$ has finitely many connected components. Under the same condition, we prove that a non closed "flat" geodesic doesn't exist, and moreover, there are at most finitely many flat strips, and at most finitely many isolated closed "flat" geodesics.
Let $M=X/Γ$ be a geometrically finite negatively curved manifold with fundamental group $Γ$ acting on $X$ by isometries. The purpose of this paper is to study the mixing property of the geodesic flow on $T^1M$, the asymptotic equivalent as $R\longrightarrow+\infty$ of the number of closed geodesics on $M$ of length less than $R$ and of the orbital counting function $\sharp\{γ\inΓ |\ d(o,γ.o)\le R\}$. These properties are well known when the Bowen-Margulis measure on $T^1M$ is finite. We consider here divergent Schottky groups whose Bowen-Margulis measure is infinite and ergodic, and we precise…
Let $ β$ be a real number less than -1. In this paper, we prove the uniqueness of the measure with maximal entropy of the negative $β$-shift. Endowed with the shift, this symbolic dynamical system is coded under certain conditions, but in all cases, it is shown that the measure with maximal entropy is carried by a support coded by a recurrent positive code. One of the difference between the positive and the negative $β$-shift is the existence of gaps in the system for certain negative values of $ β$ . These are intervals of negative $β$-representations (cylinders) negligible with respect to th…
The Ergodicity of Geodesic Flows on Rank One Manifolds of Nonpositive Curvature
College of Mathematics and Systems Science, Shandong University of Science and Technology（山东科技大学数学与系统科学学院）；Department of Mathematics, Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学数学系）
We study the ergodic properties of horospheres on rank 1 manifolds with non-positive curvature. We prove that the horospheres are equidistributed under the action of the geodesic flow towards the Bowen-Margulis measure, on a large class of manifolds. In the case of surfaces, we define a parametrization of the horocyclic flow on the set of horocycles containing a rank 1 vector that is recurrent under the action of the geodesic flow. We prove that the horocyclic flow in restriction to this set is uniquely ergodic. The results are valid for large classes of manifolds, including the compact ones.
Karlsson and Margulis proved in the setting of uniformly convex geodesic spaces, which additionally satisfy a nonpositive curvature condition, an ergodic theorem that focuses on the asymptotic behavior of integrable cocycles of nonexpansive mappings over an ergodic measure-preserving transformation. In this note we show that this result holds true when assuming a weaker notion of uniform convexity.
This paper presents a rank rigidity result for negatively curved spaces. Let $M$ be a compact manifold with negative sectional curvature and suppose that along every geodesic in $M$ there is a parallel vector field making curvature $-a^2$ with the geodesic direction. We prove that $M$ has constant curvature equal to $-a^2$ if $M$ is odd dimensional, or if $M$ is even dimensional and has sectional curvature pinched as follows: $-Λ^2 < K < -λ^2$ where $λ/Λ> .93$. When $a$ is extremal, i.e. $-a^2$ is the curvature minimum or maximum for the manifold, this result is analogous to rank rigidity resu…
We show that the horocyclic flow of an orientable compact higher genus surface without conjugate points and with continuous Green bundles is uniquely ergodic. The result applies to nonflat nonpositively curved surfaces and generalizes a classical result of Furstenberg and Marcus in negative curvature. The proof relies on the definition of a uniformly expanding parametrization on the quotient by the strips of the surface.
We study transitive step skew-product maps modeled over a complete shift of $k$, $k\ge2$, symbols whose fiber maps are defined on the circle and have intermingled contracting and expanding regions. These dynamics are genuinely nonhyperbolic and exhibit simultaneously ergodic measures with positive, negative, and zero exponents. We introduce a set of axioms for the fiber maps and study the dynamics of the resulting skew-product. These axioms turn out to capture the key mechanisms of the dynamics of nonhyperbolic robustly transitive maps with compact central leaves. Focusing on the nonhyperbolic…
We study the one parameter family of potential functions $qφ^u$ associated with the geometric potential $φ^u$ for the geodesic flow of a compact rank 1 surface of nonpositive curvature. For $q<1$ it is known that there is a unique equilibrium state associated with $qφ^u$, and it has full support. For $q > 1$ it is known that an invariant measure is an equilibrium state if and only if it is supported on the singular set. We study the critical value $q=1$ and show that the ergodic equilibrium states are either the restriction to the regular set of the Liouville measure, or measures supported on …
In this note we identify the distributional limits of non-negative, ergodic stationary processes, showing that all are possible. Consequences for infinite ergodic theory are also explored and new examples of distributionally stable- and $α$-rationally ergodic tranformations are presented.
With their origin in thermodynamics and symbolic dynamics, Gibbs measures are crucial tools to study the ergodic theory of the geodesic flow on negatively curved manifolds. We develop a framework (through Patterson-Sullivan densities) allowing us to get rid of compactness assumptions on the manifold, and prove many existence, uniqueness and finiteness results of Gibbs measures. We give many applications, to the Variational Principle, the counting and equidistribution of orbit points and periods, the unique ergodicity of the strong unstable foliation and the classification of Gibbs densities on…
In this note, we show that on certain Gatzouras-Lalley carpet, there exist more than one ergodic measures with full Hausdorff dimension. This gives a negative answer to a conjecture of Gatzouras and Peres.
In this article, we study the ergodicity of the geodesic flows on surfaces with no focal points. Let $M$ be a smooth connected and closed surface equipped with a $C^\infty$ Riemannian metric $g$, whose genus $\mathfrak{g} \geq 2$. Suppose that $(M,g)$ has no focal points. We prove that the geodesic flow on the unit tangent bundle of $M$ is ergodic with respect to the Liouville measure, under the assumption that the set of points on $M$ with negative curvature has at most finitely many connected components.
We extend to orbifolds classical results on quantum ergodicity due to Shnirelman, Colin de Verdière and Zelditch, proving that, for any positive, first-order self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operator P on a compact orbifold X with positive principal symbol p, ergodicity of the Hamiltonian flow of p implies quantum ergodicity for the operator P. We also prove ergodicity of the geodesic flow on a compact Riemannian orbifold of negative sectional curvature.
We consider a smooth closed surface $M$ of fixed genus $\geqslant 2$ with a Riemannian metric $g$ of negative curvature with fixed total area. The second author has shown that the topological entropy of geodesic flow for $g$ is greater than or equal to the topological entropy for the metric of constant negative curvature on $M$ with the same total area which is greater than or equal to the metric entropy with respect to the Liouville measure of geodesic flow for $g$. Equality holds only in the case of constant negative curvature. We prove that those are the only restrictions on the values of t…
We find obstructions to the existence of Einstein metrics of non-negative sectional curvature on a smooth closed simply connected manifold of any dimension. The results are achieved by combining the classical Morse theory of the loop space with a new upper bound for the topological entropy of the geodesic flow in terms of the curvature tensor.
The {\it curvature} and the {\it reduced curvature} are basic differential invariants of the pair: (Hamiltonian system, Lagrange distribution) on the symplectic manifold. We show that negativity of the curvature implies that any bounded semi-trajectory of the Hamiltonian system tends to a hyperbolic equilibrium, while negativity of the reduced curvature implies the hyperbolicity of any compact invariant set of the Hamiltonian flow restricted to a prescribed energy level. Last statement generalizes a well-known property of the geodesic flows of Riemannian manifolds with negative sectional curva…
We consider the geodesic flow of reversible Finsler metrics on the 2-sphere and the 2-torus, whose geodesic flow has vanishing topological entropy. Following a construction of A. Katok, we discuss examples of Finsler metrics on both surfaces, which have large ergodic components for the geodesic flow in the unit tangent bundle. On the other hand, using results of J. Franks and M. Handel, we prove that ergodicity and dense orbits cannot occur in the full unit tangent bundle of the 2-sphere, if the Finsler metric has positive flag curvatures and at least two closed geodesics. In the case of the 2…
Let $X$ be a Hadamard manifold, and $Γ$ a non-elementary discrete group of isometries of $X$ which contains a rank one isometry. We relate the ergodic theory of the geodesic flow of the quotient orbifold $M=X/Γ$ to the behavior of the Poincar{é} series of $Γ$. Precisely, the aim of this paper is to extend the so-called theorem of Hopf-Tsuji-Sullivan -- well-known for manifolds of pinched negative curvature -- to the framework of rank one orbifolds. Moreover, we derive some important properties for $Γ$-invariant conformal densities supported on the geometric limit set of $Γ$.
Let $X$ be a proper geodesic Gromov hyperbolic metric space and let $G$ be a cocompact group of isometries of $X$ admitting a uniform lattice. Let $d$ be the Hausdorff dimension of the Gromov boundary $\partial X$. We define the critical exponent $δ(μ)$ of any discrete invariant random subgroup $μ$ of the locally compact group $G$ and show that $δ(μ) > \frac{d}{2}$ in general and that $δ(μ) = d$ if $μ$ is of divergence type. Whenever $G$ is a rank-one simple Lie group with Kazhdan's property $(T)$ it follows that an ergodic invariant random subgroup of divergence type is a lattice. One of our …
For self-similar fractals, the Minkowski content and fractal curvature have been introduced as a suitable limit of the geometric characteristics of its parallel sets, i.e., of uniformly thin coatings of the fractal. For some self-conformal sets, the surface and Minkowski contents are known to exist. Conformal iterated function systems are more flexible models than similarities. This work unifies and extends such results to general self-conformal sets in R^d. We prove the rescaled volume, surface area, and curvature of parallel sets converge in a Cesaro average sense of the limit. Fractal Lipsc…
We prove the central limit theorem of random variables induced by distances to Brownian paths and Green functions on the universal cover of Riemannian manifolds of finite volume with pinched negative curvature. We further provide some ergodic properties of Brownian motions and an application of the central limit theorem to the dynamics of geodesic flows in pinched negative curvature.
In this paper we establish a version of the Margulis Roblin equidistribution theorem's for harmonic measures. As a consequence a von Neumann type theorem is obtained for boundary actions and the irreducibility of the associated quasi-regular representations is deduced.
