We study the hyperbolicity properties of the action of a non-elementary automorphism group on a compact complex surface, with an emphasis on K3 and Enriques surfaces. A first result is that when such a group contains parabolic elements, Zariski diffuse invariant measures automatically have non-zero Lyapunov exponents. In combination with our previous work, this leads to simple criteria for a uniform expansion property on the whole surface, for groups with and without parabolic elements. This, in turn, has strong consequences on the dynamics: description of orbit closures, equidistribution, ergodicity properties, etc.
Along the way, we provide a reference discussion on uniform expansion of non-linear discrete group actions on compact (real) manifolds and the construction of Margulis functions under optimal moment conditions.
We prove that for a polynomial diffeomorphism of C^2, uniform hyperbolicity on the set of saddle periodic points implies that saddle points are dense in the Julia set. In particular f satisfies Smale's Axiom A on C^2 .
We prove that uniform hyperbolicity is invariant under topological conjugacy for dissipative polynomial automorphisms of C^2. Along the way we also show that a sufficient condition for hyperbolicity is that local stable and unstable manifolds of saddle points have uniform geometry.
We prove a theorem of Tits type for automorphism groups of projective varieties over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic, which was first conjectured by Keum, Oguiso and Zhang for complex projective varieties.
We show that, in any dimension greater than one, there are an abelian variety, a smooth rational variety and a Calabi-Yau manifold, with primitive birational automorphisms of first dynamical degree $>1$. We also show that there are smooth complex projective Calabi-Yau manifolds and smooth rational manifolds, of any even dimension, with primitive biregular automorphisms of positive topological entropy.
We classify invariant probability measures for non-elementary groups of automorphisms, on any compact Kähler surface X, under the assumption that the group contains a so-called "parabolic automorphism". We also prove that except in certain rigid situations known as Kummer examples, there are only finitely many invariant, ergodic, probability measures with a Zariski dense support. If X is a K3 or Enriques surface, and the group does not preserve any algebraic subset, this leads to a complete description of orbit closures.
Let $X$ be a projective variety and $σ$ a wild automorphism on $X$, i.e., whenever $σ(Z) = Z$ for a non-empty Zariski-closed subset $Z$ of $X$, we have $Z = X$. Then $X$ is conjectured to be an abelian variety with $σ$ of zero entropy (and proved to be so when ${\rm dim} \, X \le 2$) by Z. Reichstein, D. Rogalski and J. J. Zhang in their study of projectively simple rings. This conjecture has been generally open for more than a decade. In this note, we confirm this original conjecture when ${\rm dim} \, X \le 3$ and $X$ is not a Calabi-Yau threefold, and also show that $σ$ is of zero entropy w…
We study finite orbits for non-elementary groups of automorphisms of compact projective surfaces. In particular we prove that if the surface and the group are defined over a number field k and the group contains parabolic elements, then the set of finite orbits is not Zariski dense, except in certain very rigid situations, known as Kummer examples. Related results are also established when k=C. An application is given to the description of "canonical vector heights" associated to such automorphism groups.
We initiate the study of random iteration of automorphisms of real and complex projective surfaces, or more generally compact K{ä}hler surfaces, focusing on the fundamental problem of classification of stationary measures. We show that, in a number of cases, such stationary measures are invariant, and provide criteria for uniqueness, smoothness and rigidity of invariant probability measures. This involves a variety of tools from complex and algebraic geometry, random products of matrices, non-uniform hyperbolicity, as well as recent results of Brown and Rodriguez Hertz on random iteration of s…
Let $f$ be an endomorphism of the projective line. There is a natural conjugation action on the space of such morphisms by elements of the projective linear group. The group of automorphisms, or stabilizer group, of a given $f$ for this action is known to be a finite group. We determine explicit families that parameterize all endomorphisms defined over $\bar{\mathbb{Q}}$ of degree $3$ and degree $4$ that have a nontrivial automorphism, the \textit{automorphism locus} of the moduli space of dynamical systems. We analyze the geometry of these loci in the appropriate moduli space of dynamical sys…
Ghys and Sergiescu proved in the $80$s that Thompson's group $T$, and hence $F$, admits actions by $C^{\infty}$ diffeomorphisms of the circle . They proved that the standard actions of these groups are topologically conjugate to a group of $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms. Monod defined a family of groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms, and Lodha-Moore defined finitely presentable groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms. These groups are of particular interest because they are nonamenable and contain no free subgroup. In contrast to the result of Ghys-Sergiescu, we prove that the group…
