Let $G$ be a connected semisimple Lie group with finite centre, and let $M= Γ\backslash G$ be a compact homogeneous manifold. Under a spectral gap assumption, we show that smooth time-changes of any unipotent flow on $M$ have polynomial decay of correlations. Our result applies also in the case where $M$ is a finite volume, non-compact quotient under some additional assumptions on the generator of the time-change. This generalizes a result by Forni and Ulcigrai (JMD, 2012) for smooth time-changes of horocycle flows on compact surfaces.
Let $G$ be a Lie group and $Γ$ be a lattice in $G$. We introduce the notion of locally unipotent invariant measures on $G/Γ$. We then prove that under some conditions, the limit measure supported on the image of polynomial trajectories on $G/Γ$ is locally unipotent invariant, thus give a partial answer to an equidistribution problem for higher dimensional polynomial trajectories on homogeneous spaces, which was raised by Shah in \cite{shah1994limit}. The proof relies on Ratner's measure classification theorem, linearization technique for polynomial trajectories near singular sets and a twistin…
We study a refined version of the Linnik problem on the asymptotic behavior of the number of representations of integer $m$ by an integral polynomial as $m$ tends to infinity. We assume that the polynomial arises from invariant theory, and use methods from the theory of unipotent flows.
We consider a family of smooth perturbations of unipotent flows on compact quotients of $\text{SL}(3,\mathbb{R})$ which are not time-changes. More precisely, given a unipotent vector field, we perturb it by adding a non-constant component in a commuting direction. We prove that, if the resulting flow preserves a measure equivalent to Haar, then it is parabolic and mixing. The proof is based on a geometric shearing mechanism together with a non-homogeneous version of Mautner Phenomenon for homogeneous flows. Moreover, we characterize smoothly trivial perturbations and we relate the existence of…
In this note, we consider the orbits $\{pu(n^{1+γ})|n\in\mathbb N\}$ in $Γ\backslash\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$, where $Γ$ is a non-uniform lattice in $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$ and $u(t)$ is the standard unipotent group in $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$. Under a Diophantine condition on the intial point $p$, we can prove that $\{pu(n^{1+γ})|n\in\mathbb N\}$ is equidistributed in $Γ\backslash\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$ for small $γ>0$, which generalizes a result of Venkatesh (Ann.of Math. 2010). We will compute Hausdorff dimensions of subsets of non-Diophantine points in Appendix A, using results of latti…
The formal class of a germ of diffeomorphism $ϕ$ is embeddable in a flow if $ϕ$ is formally conjugated to the exponential of a germ of vector field. We prove that there are complex analytic unipotent germs of diffeomorphisms at $({\mathbb C}^{n},0)$ ($n>1$) whose formal class is non-embeddable. The examples are inside a family in which the non-embeddability is of geometrical type. The proof relies on the properties of some linear functional operators that we obtain through the study of polynomial families of diffeomorphisms via potential theory.
We study nontrivial entropy invariants in the class of parabolic flows on homogeneous spaces, quasi-unipotent flows. We show that topological complexity (ie, slow entropy) can be computed directly from the Jordan block structure of the adjoint representation. Moreover using uniform polynomial shearing we are able to show that the metric orbit growth (ie, slow entropy) coincides with the topological one, establishing hence variational principle for quasi-unipotent flows (this also applies to the non-compact case). Our results also apply to sequence entropy. We establish criterion for a system t…
We consider some nonuniformly hyperbolic invertible dynamical systems which are modeled by a Gibbs-Markov-Young tower. We assume a polynomial tail for the inducing time and a polynomial control of hyperbolicity, as introduced by Alves, Pinheiro and Azevedo. These systems admit a physical measure with polynomial rate of mixing. In this paper we prove that the distribution of the number of visits to a ball B(x, r) converges to a Poisson distribution as the radius r $\to$ 0 and after suitable normalization.
Let $(X, T)$ be a weakly mixing minimal system, $p_1, \cdots, p_d$ be integer-valued generalized polynomials and $(p_1,p_2,\cdots,p_d)$ be non-degenerate. Then there exists a residual subset $X_0$ of $X$ such that for all $x\in X_0$ $$\{ (T^{p_1(n)}x, \cdots, T^{p_d(n)}x): n\in \mathbb{Z}\}$$ is dense in $X^d$.
A minimal system $(X,T)$ is topologically mildly mixing if all non-empty open subsets $U,V$, $\{n\in \Z: U\cap T^{-n}V\neq \emptyset\}$ is an IP$^*$-set. In this paper we show that if a minimal system is topologically mildly mixing, then it is mild mixing of all orders along polynomials. That is, suppose that $(X,T)$ is a topologically mildly mixing minimal system, $d\in \N$, $p_1(n),\ldots, p_d(n)$ are integral polynomials with no $p_i$ and no $p_i-p_j$ constant, $1\le i\neq j\le d$, then for all non-empty open subsets $U , V_1, \ldots, V_d $, $\{n\in \Z: U\cap T^{-p_1(n) }V_1\cap T^{-p_2(n)}…
Erdos-Renyi limit laws give the length scale of a time-window over which time-averages in Birkhoff sums have a non-trivial almost-sure limit. We establish Erdos-Renyi type limit laws for Holder observables on dynamical systems modeled by Young Towers with exponential and polynomial tails. This extends earlier results on Erdos-Renyi limit laws to a broad class of dynamical systems with some degree of hyperbolicity.
We give a review of results on superpolynomial decay of correlations, and polynomial decay of correlations for nonuniformly expanding semiflows and nonuniformly hyperbolic flows. A self-contained proof is given for semiflows. Results for flows are stated without proof (the proofs are contained in separate joint work with Balint and Butterley). Applications include intermittent solenoidal flows, suspended Henon attractors, Lorenz attractors, and various Lorentz gas models including the infinite horizon Lorentz gas.
We show that the rate of mixing of the Weil-Petersson flow on non-exceptional (higher dimensional) moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces is at most polynomial.
We investigate polynomial patterns which can be guaranteed to appear in \emph{weakly mixing} sets introduced by introduced by Furstenberg and studied by Fish. In particular, we prove that if $A \subset \mathbb N$ is a weakly mixing set and $p(x) \in \mathbb Z[x]$ a polynomial of odd degree with positive leading coefficient, then all sufficiently large integers $N$ can be represented as $N = n_1 + n_2$, where $p(n_1) + m,\ p(n_2) + m \in A$ for some $m \in A$.
We prove that the earthquake flow is at most polynomially mixing with a degree bounded by a constant depending only on the topology of the surface. In particular it is not exponentially mixing.
Since the seminal work of Sinai one studies chaotic properties of planar billiards tables. Among them is the study of decay of correlations for these tables. There are examples in the literature of tables with exponential and even polynomial decay. However, until now nothing is known about mixing properties for billiard tables with non-compact cusps. There is no consensual definition of mixing for systems with infinite invariant measure. In this paper we study geometric and ergodic properties of billiard tables with a non-compact cusp. The goal of this text is, using the definition of mixing p…
Let $(h_t)_{t\in \mathbb{R}}$ be the horocycle flow acting on $(M,μ)=(Γ\backslash \text{SL}(2,\mathbb{R}),μ)$, where $Γ$ is a co-compact lattice in $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ and $μ$ is the homogeneous probability measure locally given by the Haar measure on $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$. Let $τ\in W^6(M)$ be a strictly positive function and let $μ^τ$ be the measure equivalent to $μ$ with density $τ$. We consider the time changed flow $(h_t^τ)_{t\in \mathbb{R}}$ and we show that there exists $γ=γ(M,τ)>0$ and a constant $C>0$ such that for any $ f_0, f_1, f_2\in W^6(M)$ and for all $0=t_0<t_1<t_2$, …
We study dynamical properties of automorphisms of compact nilmanifolds and prove that every ergodic automorphism is exponentially mixing and exponentially mixing of higher orders. This allows to establish probabilistic limit theorems and regularity of solutions of the cohomological equation for such automorphisms. Our method is based on the quantitative equidistribution results for polynomial maps combined with Diophantine estimates.
In this paper we exhibit new classes of smooth systems which satisfy the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) and have (at least) one of the following properties: (1) zero entropy; (2) weak but not strong mixing; (3) (polynomially) mixing but not $K$; (4) $K$ but not Bernoulli; (5) non Bernoulli and mixing at arbitrary fast polynomial rate. We also give an example of a system satisfying the CLT where the normalizing sequence is regularly varying with index $1$.
We show that polynomial decay of correlations is prevalent for a class of nonuniformly hyperbolic flows. These flows are the continuous time analogue of a class of nonuniformly hyperbolic diffeomorphisms for which Young proved polynomial decay of correlations. Roughly speaking, in situations where the decay rate $O(1/n^β)$ has previously been proved for diffeomorphisms, we establish the decay rate $O(1/t^β)$ for typical flows. Applications include certain classes of semidispersing billiards, as well as dispersing billiards with vanishing curvature. In addition, we obtain results for suspension…
We introduce a family of area preserving generalized baker's transformations acting on the unit square and having sharp polynomial rates of mixing for Holder data. The construction is geometric, relying on the graph of a single variable "cut function". Each baker's map B is non-uniformly hyperbolic and while the exact mixing rate depends on B, all polynomial rates can be attained. The analysis of mixing rates depends on building a suitable Young tower for an expanding factor. The mechanisms leading to a slow rate of correlation decay are especially transparent in our examples due to the simpl…
Let $f$ be a Hénon-Sibony map (regular polynomial automorphism) of $\mathbb{C}^k$ and let $μ$ be the equilibrium measure of $f$. In this paper we prove that $μ$ is exponentially mixing for plurisubharmonic test functions.
We use a Voronoi-type tessellation based on a compound Poisson point process to construct a polynomially mixing stationary random smooth planar vector field with bounded nonnegative components such that, with probability one, none of the associated integral curves possess an asymptotic direction.
The perceived randomness in the time evolution of "chaotic" dynamical systems can be characterized by universal probabilistic limit laws, which do not depend on the fine features of the individual system. One important example is the Poisson law for the times at which a particle with random initial data hits a small set. This was proved in various settings for dynamical systems with strong mixing properties. The key result of the present study is that, despite the absence of mixing, the hitting times of integrable flows also satisfy universal limit laws which are, however, not Poisson. We desc…