On pairs of prime geodesics with fixed homology difference

We exhibit the analogy between prime geodesics on hyperbolic Riemann surfaces and ordinary primes. We present new asymptotic counting results concerning pairs of prime geodesics whose homology difference is fixed.Comment: 19 pages, Corrected typos, corrected MSC-clas

Distribution of modular symbols for compact surfaces

We prove that the modular symbols appropriately normalized and ordered have an asymptotical normal distribution for all cocompact subgroups of SL_2(R). We introduce hyperbolic Eisenstein series in order to calculate the moments of the modular symbols.Comment: 25 page

Dissolving cusp forms: Higher order Fermi's Golden Rules

For a hyperbolic surface embedded eigenvalues of the Laplace operator are unstable and tend to become resonances. A sufficient dissolving condition was identified by Phillips-Sarnak and is elegantly expressed in Fermi's Golden Rule. We prove formulas for higher approximations and obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for dissolving a cusp form with eigenfunction $u_j$ into a resonance. In the framework of perturbations in character varieties, we relate the result to the special values of the $L$-series $L(u_j\otimes F^n, s)$. This is the Rankin-Selberg convolution of $u_j$ with $F(z)^n$, where $F(z)$ is the antiderivative of a weight 2 cusp form. In an example we show that the above-mentioned conditions force the embedded eigenvalue to become a resonance in a punctured neighborhood of the deformation space.Comment: 33 pages, typos corrected, new section adde

On the statistics of the minimal solution of a linear Diophantine equation and uniform distribution of the real part of orbits in hyperbolic spaces

We study a variant of a problem considered by Dinaburg and Sinai on the statistics of the minimal solution to a linear Diophantine equation. We show that the signed ratio between the Euclidean norms of the minimal solution and the coefficient vector is uniformly distributed modulo one. We reduce the problem to an equidistribution theorem of Anton Good concerning the orbits of a point in the upper half-plane under the action of a Fuchsian group.Comment: Minor changes. Final version to appear in proceedings of the conference on the occasion of Sunada's 60th birthday. Contemp.Math. series of Amer. Math.So