Expanding translates of curves and Dirichlet-Minkowski theorem on linear forms

We show that a multiplicative form of Dirichlet's theorem on simultaneous Diophantine approximation as formulated by Minkowski, cannot be improved for almost all points on any analytic curve on R^k which is not contained in a proper affine subspace. Such an investigation was initiated by Davenport and Schmidt in the late sixties. The Diophantine problem is then settled by showing that certain sequence of expanding translates of curves on the homogeneous space of unimodular lattices in R^{k+1} gets equidistributed in the limit. We use Ratner's theorem on unipotent flows, linearization techniques, and a new observation about intertwined linear dynamics of various SL(m,R)'s contained in SL(k+1,R).Comment: 28 page

Counting integral matrices with a given characteristic polynomial

We give a simpler proof of an earlier result giving an asymptotic estimate for the number of integral matrices, in large balls, with a given monic integral irreducible polynomial as their common characteristic polynomial. The proof uses equidistributions of polynomial trajectories on SL(n,R)/SL(n,Z), which is a generalization of Ratner's theorem on equidistributions of unipotent trajectories. We also compute the exact constants appearing in the above mentioned asymptotic estimate

Limiting distributions of curves under geodesic flow on hyperbolic manifolds

We consider the evolution of a compact segment of an analytic curve on the unit tangent bundle of a finite volume hyperbolic $n$-manifold under the geodesic flow. Suppose that the curve is not contained in a stable leaf of the flow. It is shown that under the geodesic flow, the normalized parameter measure on the curve gets asymptotically equidistributed with respect to the normalized natural Riemannian measure on the unit tangent bundle of a closed totally geodesically immersed submanifold. Moreover, if this immersed submanifold is a proper subset, then a lift of the curve to the universal covering space $T^1(H^n)$ is mapped into a proper subsphere of the ideal boundary sphere $\partial H^n$ under the visual map. This proper subsphere can be realized as the ideal boundary of an isometrically embedded hyperbolic subspace in $H^n$ covering the closed immersed submanifold. In particular, if the visual map does not send a lift of the curve into a proper subsphere of $\partial H^n$, then under the geodesic flow the curve gets asymptotically equidistributed on the unit tangent bundle of the manifold with respect to the normalized natural Riemannian measure. The proof uses dynamical properties of unipotent flows on finite volume homogeneous spaces of SO(n,1).Comment: 27 pages, revised version, Proof of Theorem~3.1 simplified, remarks adde

Counting visible circles on the sphere and Kleinian groups

For a circle packing P on the sphere invariant under a geometrically finite Kleinian group, we compute the asymptotic of the number of circles in P of spherical curvature at most $T$ which are contained in any given region.Comment: Main results are significantly improved, 16 pages, 1 figur

Equidistribution and Counting for orbits of geometrically finite hyperbolic groups

Let G be the identity component of SO(n,1), acting linearly on a finite dimensional real vector space V. Consider a vector w_0 in V such that the stabilizer of w_0 is a symmetric subgroup of G or the stabilizer of the line Rw_0 is a parabolic subgroup of G. For any non-elementary discrete subgroup Gamma of G with w_0Gamma discrete, we compute an asymptotic formula for the number of points in w_0Gamma of norm at most T, provided that the Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure on the associated hyperbolic manifold and the Gamma skinning size of w_0 are finite. The main ergodic ingredient in our approach is the description for the limiting distribution of the orthogonal translates of a totally geodesically immersed closed submanifold of Gamma\H^n. We also give a criterion on the finiteness of the Gamma skinning size of w_0 for Gamma geometrically finite.Comment: Extensions of Equidistribution results to G/Gamma are obtained for Gamma Zariski dense, and Much more precise description on the structure of cuspidal neighborhoods of parabolic points is obtained for Gamma geometrically finite. 63 pages (with 1 figure

Geometric results on linear actions of reductive Lie groups for applications to homogeneous dynamics

Several problems in number theory when reformulated in terms of homogenous dynamics involve study of limiting distributions of translates of algebraically defined measures on orbits of reductive groups. The general non-divergence and linearization techniques, in view of Ratner's measure classification for unipotent flows, reduce such problems to dynamical questions about linear actions of reductive groups on finite dimensional vectors spaces. This article provides general results which resolve these linear dynamical questions in terms of natural group theoretic or geometric conditions