arXiv subjects

Artur Avila

Publications and source records attributed to Artur Avila.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Monotonic cocycles

We develop a "local theory" of multidimensional quasiperiodic $\SL(2,\R)$ cocycles which are not homotopic to a constant. It describes a $C^1$-open neighborhood of cocycles of rotations and applies irrespective of arithmetic conditions on the frequency, being much more robust than the local theory of $\SL(2,\R)$ cocycles homotopic to a constant. Our analysis is centered around the notion of monotonicity with respect to some dynamical variable. For such {\it monotonic cocycles}, we obtain a sharp rigidity result, minimality of the projective action, typical nonuniform hyperbolicity, and a surprising result of smoothness of the Lyapunov exponent (while no better than Hölder can be obtained in the case of cocycles homotopic to a constant, and only under arithmetic restrictions). Our work is based on complexification ideas, extended "à la Lyubich" to the smooth setting (through the use of asymptotically holomorphic extensions). We also develop a counterpart of this theory centered around the notion of monotonicity with respect to a parameter variable, which applies to the analysis of $\SL(2,\R)$ cocycles over more general dynamical systems and generalizes key aspects of Kotani Theory. We conclude with a more detailed discussion of one-dimensional monotonic cocycles, for which results about rigidity and typical nonuniform hyperbolicity can be globalized using a new result about convergence of renormalization.

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arXiv2013

SL(2,R)-invariant probability measures on the moduli spaces of translation surfaces are regular

In the moduli space $H_g$ of normalized translation surfaces of genus $g$, consider, for a small parameter $ρ>0$, those translation surfaces which have two non-parallel saddle-connections of length $\leq ρ$. We prove that this subset of $H_g$ has measure $o(ρ^2)$ w.r.t. any probability measure on $H_g$ which is invariant under the natural action of $SL(2,R)$. This implies that any such probability measure is regular, a property which is important in relation with the recent fundamental work of Eskin-Kontsevich-Zorich on the Lyapunov exponents of the KZ-cocycle.

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arXiv2012

On manifolds supporting distributionally uniquely ergodic diffeomorphisms

A smooth diffeomorphism is said to be distributionally uniquely ergodic (DUE for short) when it is uniquely ergodic and its unique invariant probability measure is the only invariant distribution (up to multiplication by a constant). Ergodic translations on tori are classical examples of DUE diffeomorphisms. In this article we construct DUE diffeomorphisms supported on closed manifolds different from tori, providing some counterexamples to a conjecture proposed by Forni in [For08].

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arXiv2012

On the Kotani-Last and Schrodinger conjectures

In the theory of ergodic one-dimensional Schrodinger operators, ac spectrum has been traditionally expected to be very rigid. Two key conjectures in this direction state, on one hand, that ac spectrum demands almost periodicity of the potential, and, on the other hand, that the eigenfunctions are almost surely bounded in the essential suport of the ac spectrum. We show how the repeated slow deformation of periodic potentials can be used to break rigidity, and disprove both conjectures.

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arXiv2011

Absolute continuity, Lyapunov exponents and rigidity I : geodesic flows

We consider volume-preserving perturbations of the time-one map of the geodesic flow of a compact surface with negative curvature. We show that if the Liouville measure has Lebesgue disintegration along the center foliation then the perturbation is itself the time-one map of a smooth volume-preserving flow, and that otherwise the disintegration is necessarily atomic.

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arXiv2010

Small eigenvalues of the Laplacian for algebraic measures in moduli space, and mixing properties of the Teichmüller flow

We consider the $SL(2,R)$ action on moduli spaces of quadratic differentials. If $μ$ is an $SL(2,R)$-invariant probability measure, crucial information about the associated representation on $L^2(μ)$ (and in particular, fine asymptotics for decay of correlations of the diagonal action, the Teichmüller flow) is encoded in the part of the spectrum of the corresponding foliated hyperbolic Laplacian that lies in $(0,1/4)$ (which controls the contribution of the complementary series). Here we prove that the essential spectrum of an invariant algebraic measure is contained in $[1/4,\infty)$, i.e., for every $δ>0$, there are only finitely many eigenvalues (counted with multiplicity) in $(0,1/4-δ)$. In particular, all algebraic invariant measures have a spectral gap.

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arXiv2010

Cohomological equations and invariant distributions for minimal circle diffeomorphisms

Given any smooth circle diffeomorphism with irrational rotation number, we show that its invariant probability measure is the only invariant distribution (up to multiplication by a real constant). As a consequence of this, we show that the space of real smooth coboundaries of such a diffeomorphism is closed if and only if its rotation number is Diophantine.

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arXiv2010

Almost reducibility and absolute continuity I

We consider one-frequency analytic SL(2,R) cocycles. Our main result establishes the Almost Reducibility Conjecture in the case of exponentially Liouville frequencies. Together with our earlier work, this implies that all cocycles close to constant are almost reducible, independent of the frequency. In our forthcoming work, we discuss applications to the analysis of the absolutely continuous spectrum of one-frequency Schrodinger operators.

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arXiv2010

The full renormalization horseshoe for unimodal maps of higher degree: exponential contraction along hybrid classes

We prove exponential contraction of renormalization along hybrid classes of infinitely renormalizable unimodal maps (with arbitrary combinatorics), in any even degree $d$. We then conclude that orbits of renormalization are asymptotic to the full renormalization horseshoe, which we construct. Our argument for exponential contraction is based on a precompactness property of the renormalization operator ("beau bounds"), which is leveraged in the abstract analysis of holomorphic iteration. Besides greater generality, it yields a unified approach to all combinatorics and degrees: there is no need to account for the varied geometric details of the dynamics, which were the typical source of contraction in previous restricted proofs.

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arXiv2010

Nonuniform Hyperbolicity, Global Dominated Splittings and Generic Properties of Volume-Preserving Diffeomorphisms

We study generic volume-preserving diffeomorphisms on compact manifolds. We show that the following property holds generically in the $C^1$ topology: Either there is at least one zero Lyapunov exponent at almost every point, or the set of points with only non-zero exponents forms an ergodic component. Moreover, if this nonuniformly hyperbolic component has positive measure then it is essentially dense in the manifold (that is, it has a positive measure intersection with any nonempty open set) and there is a global dominated splitting. For the proof we establish some new properties of independent interest that hold $C^r$-generically for any $r \geq 1$, namely: the continuity of the ergodic decomposition, the persistence of invariant sets, and the $L^1$-continuity of Lyapunov exponents.

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arXiv2010

Mixing for Time-Changes of Heisenberg Nilflows

We consider reparametrizations of Heisenberg nilflows. We show that if a Heisenberg nilflow is uniquely ergodic, all non-trivial time-changes within a dense subspace of smooth time-changes are mixing. Equivalently, in the language of special flows, we consider special flows over linear skew-shift extensions of irrational rotations of the circle. Without assuming any Diophantine condition on the frequency, we define a dense class of smooth roof functions for which the corresponding special flows are mixing. Mixing is produced by a mechanism known as stretching of Birkhoff sums. The complement of the set of mixing time-changes (or, equivalently, of mixing roof functions) has countable codimension and can be explicitely described in terms of the invariant distributions for the nilflow (or, equivalently, for the skew-shift), allowing to produce concrete examples of mixing time-changes.

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arXiv2010

Density of positive Lyapunov exponents for SL(2,R) cocycles

We show that SL(2,R) cocycles with a positive Lyapunov exponent are dense in all regularity classes and for all non-periodic dynamical systems. For Schrödinger cocycles, we show prevalence of potentials for which the Lyapunov exponent is positive for a dense set of energies.

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arXiv2010

A KAM scheme for SL(2,R) cocycles with Liouvillean frequencies

We develop a new KAM scheme that applies to SL(2,R) cocycles with one frequency, irrespective of any Diophantine condition on the base dynamics. It gives a generalization of Dinaburg-Sinai's Theorem to arbitrary frequencies: under a closeness to constant assumption, the non-Abelian part of the classical reducibility problem can always be solved for a positive measure set of parameters.

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arXiv2009

Holder continuity of absolutely continuous spectral measures for one-frequency Schrodinger operators

We establish sharp results on the modulus of continuity of the distribution of the spectral measure for one-frequency Schrodinger operators with Diophantine frequencies in the region of absolutely continuous spectrum. More precisely, we establish 1/2-Holder continuity near almost reducible energies (an essential support of absolutely continuous spectrum). For non-perturbatively small potentials (and for the almost Mathieu operator with subcritical coupling), our results apply for all energies.

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arXiv2009

Nonuniform Center Bunching and the Genericity of Ergodicity among $C^1$ Partially Hyperbolic Symplectomorphisms

We introduce the notion of nonuniform center bunching for partially hyperbolic diffeomorphims, and extend previous results by Burns--Wilkinson and Avila--Santamaria--Viana. Combining this new technique with other constructions, we prove that $C^1$-generic partially hyperbolic symplectomorphisms are ergodic. We also construct new examples of stably ergodic partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms.

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arXiv2009

Exponential Mixing for the Teichmuller flow in the Space of Quadratic Differentials

We consider the Teichmuller flow on the unit cotangent bundle of the moduli space of compact Riemann surfaces with punctures. We show that it is exponentially mixing for the Ratner class of observables. More generally, this result holds for the restriction of the Teichmuller flow to an arbitrary connected component of stratum. This result generalizes [AGY] which considered the case of strata of squares.

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arXiv2009

Global theory of one-frequency Schrodinger operators I: stratified analyticity of the Lyapunov exponent and the boundary of nonuniform hyperbolicity

We study Schrodinger operators with a one-frequency analytic potential, focusing on the transition between the two distinct local regimes characteristic respectively of large and small potentials. From the dynamical point of view, the transition signals the emergence of nonuniform hyperbolicity, so the dependence of the Lyapunov exponent with respect to parameters plays a central role in the analysis. Though often ill-behaved by conventional measures, we show that the Lyapunov exponent is in fact remarkably regular in a ``stratified sense'' which we define: the irregularity comes from the matching of nice (analytic or smooth) functions along sets with complicated geometry. This result allows us to stablish that the ``critical set'' for the transition has at most codimension one, so for a typical potential the set of critical energies is at most countable, hence typically not seen by spectral measures. Key to our approach are two results about the dependence of the Lyapunov exponent of one-frequency $\SL(2,\C)$ cocycles with respect to perturbations in the imaginary direction: on one hand there is a severe ``quantization'' restriction, and on the other hand ``regularity'' of the dependence characterizes uniform hyperbolicity when the Lyapunov exponent is positive. Our method is independent of arithmetic conditions on the frequency.

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arXiv2009

Opening Gaps in the Spectrum of Strictly Ergodic Schrödinger Operators

We consider Schrödinger operators with dynamically defined potentials arising from continuous sampling along orbits of strictly ergodic transformations. The Gap Labeling Theorem states that the possible gaps in the spectrum can be canonically labelled by an at most countable set defined purely in terms of the dynamics. Which labels actually appear depends on the choice of the sampling function; the missing labels are said to correspond to collapsed gaps. Here we show that for any collapsed gap, the sampling function may be continuously deformed so that the gap immediately opens. As a corollary, we conclude that for generic sampling functions, all gaps are open. The proof is based on the analysis of continuous $SL(2,R)$ cocycles, for which we obtain dynamical results of independent interest.

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