Symmetry of entropy in higher rank diagonalizable actions and measure classification

An important consequence of the theory of entropy of Z-actions is that the events measurable with respect to the far future coincide (modulo null sets) with those measurable with respect to the distant past, and that measuring the entropy using the past will give the same value as measuring it using the future. In this paper we show that for measures invariant under multiparameter algebraic actions if the entropy attached to coarse Lyapunov foliations fail to display a stronger symmetry property of a similar type this forces the measure to be invariant under non-trivial unipotent groups. Some consequences of this phenomenon are noted

Graph Eigenfunctions and Quantum Unique Ergodicity

We apply the techniques of our previous paper to study joint eigenfunctions of the Laplacian and one Hecke operator on compact congruence surfaces, and joint eigenfunctions of the two partial Laplacians on compact quotients of $\mathbb{H}\times\mathbb{H}$. In both cases, we show that quantum limit measures of such sequences of eigenfunctions carry positive entropy on almost every ergodic component. Together with prior work of the second named author, this implies Quantum Unique Ergodicity for such functions.Comment: 8 page

Invariant measures and the set of exceptions to Littlewood's conjecture

We classify the measures on SL (k,R)/SL (k,Z) which are invariant and ergodic under the action of the group A of positive diagonal matrices with positive entropy. We apply this to prove that the set of exceptions to Littlewood's conjecture has Hausdorff dimension zero.Comment: 48 page

Entropy of convolutions on the circle

Given ergodic p-invariant measures {\mu_i} on the 1-torus T=R/Z, we give a sharp condition on their entropies, guaranteeing that the entropy of the convolution \muon converges to \log p. We also prove a variant of this result for joinings of full entropy on \T^\N. In conjunction with a method of Host, this yields the following. Denote \sig_q(x) = qx\pmod{1}. Then for every p-invariant ergodic \mu with positive entropy, \frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=0}^{N-1}\sig_{c_n}\mu converges weak^* to Lebesgue measure as N \goesto \infty, under a certain mild combinatorial condition on {c_k}. (For instance, the condition is satisfied if p=10 and c_k=2^k+6^k or c_k=2^{2^k}.) This extends a result of Johnson and Rudolph, who considered the sequence c_k = q^k when p and q are multiplicatively independent. We also obtain the following corollary concerning Hausdorff dimension of sum sets: For any sequence {S_i} of p-invariant closed subsets of T, if \sum \dim_H(S_i) / |\log\dim_H(S_i)| = \infty, then \dim_H(S_1 + \cdots + S_n) \goesto 1.Comment: 34 pages, published versio

Quantum Ergodicity and Averaging Operators on the Sphere

We prove quantum ergodicity for certain orthonormal bases of $L^2(\mathbb{S}^2)$, consisting of joint eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on $\mathbb{S}^2$ and the discrete averaging operator over a finite set of rotations, generating a free group. If in addition the rotations are algebraic we give a quantified version of this result. The methods used also give a new, simplified proof of quantum ergodicity for large regular graphs.Comment: 27 page