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Barak Weiss

Publications and source records attributed to Barak Weiss.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

Rel leaves of the Arnoux-Yoccoz surfaces

We analyze the rel leaves of the Arnoux-Yoccoz translation surfaces. We show that for any genus $g \geq 3$, the leaf is dense in the connected component of the stratum $H(g -1 , g -1)$ to which it belongs, and the one-sided imaginary-rel trajectory of the surface is divergent. For one surface on this trajectory, namely the Arnoux-Yoccoz surface itself, the horizontal foliation is invariant under a pseudo-Anosov map (and in particular is uniquely ergodic), but for all other surfaces, the horizontal foliation is completely periodic. The appendix proves a field theoretic result needed for denseness of the leaf: for any $n \geq 3$, the field extension of the rationals obtained by adjoining a root of $X^n-X^{n-1}-\ldots-X-1$ has no totally real subfields other than the rationals.

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arXiv2019

Effective counting on translation surfaces

We prove an effective version of a celebrated result of Eskin and Masur: for any affine invariant manifold of translation surfaces, almost every translation surface has quadratic growth for the saddle connection holonomy vectors, with an effective bound of the error. We also provide effective versions of counting in sectors and in ellipses.

math.DS↗
arXiv2019

Effective counting for discrete lattice orbits in the plane via Eisenstein series

We prove effective bounds on the rate in the quadratic growth asymptotics for the orbit of a non-uniform lattice of SL(2,R), acting linearly on the plane. This gives an error bound in the count of saddle connection holonomies, for some Veech surfaces. The proof uses Eisenstein series and relies on earlier work of many authors (notably Selberg). Our results improve earlier error bounds for counting in sectors and in smooth star shaped domains.

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arXiv2018

Schmidt's game, fractals, and numbers normal to no base

Given $b > 1$ and $y \in \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$, we consider the set of $x\in \mathbb{R}$ such that $y$ is not a limit point of the sequence $\{b^n x \bmod 1: n\in\mathbb{N}\}$. Such sets are known to have full Hausdorff dimension, and in many cases have been shown to have a stronger property of being winning in the sense of Schmidt. In this paper, by utilizing Schmidt games, we prove that these sets and their bi-Lipschitz images must intersect with `sufficiently regular' fractals $K\subset \mathbb{R}$ (that is, supporting measures $μ$ satisfying certain decay conditions). Furthermore, the intersection has full dimension in $K$ if $μ$ satisfies a power law (this holds for example if $K$ is the middle third Cantor set). Thus it follows that the set of numbers in the middle third Cantor set which are normal to no base has dimension $\log2/\log3$.

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arXiv2016

Random walks on homogeneous spaces and diophantine approximation on fractals

We extend results of Y. Benoist and J.-F. Quint concerning random walks on homogeneous spaces of simple Lie groups to the case where the measure defining the random walk generates a semigroup which is not necessarily Zariski dense, but satisfies some expansion properties for the adjoint action. Using these dynamical results, we study diophantine properties of typical points on some self-similar fractals in R^d. As examples, we show that for any self-similar fractal K in R^d satisfying the open set condition (for instance any translate or dilate of Cantor's middle thirds set or of a Koch snowflake), almost every point with respect to the natural measure on K is not badly approximable. Furthermore, almost every point on the fractal is of generic type, which implies (in the one dimensional case) that its continued fraction expansion contains all finite words with the frequencies predicted by Gauss measure. We prove analogous results for matrix multiplication, and for the case of fractals defined by Mobius transformation.

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arXiv2016

Stable lattices and the diagonal group

Inspired by work of McMullen, we show that any orbit of the diagonal group in the space of lattices accumulates on the set of stable lattices. As consequences, we settle a conjecture of Ramharter concerning the asymptotic behaviour of the Mordell constant, and reduce Minkowski's conjecture on products of linear forms to a geometric question, yielding two new proofs of the conjecture in dimensions up to 7.

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arXiv2016

Some remarks on Mahler's classification in higher dimension

We prove a number of results on the metric and non-metric theory of Diophantine approximation for Yu's multidimensional variant of Mahler's classification of transcendental numbers. Our results arise as applications of well known results in Diophantine approximation to the setting of Yu's classification.

math.NT↗
arXiv2015

On problems of Danzer and Gowers and dynamics on the space of closed subsets of $\mathbb{R}^d$

Considering the space of closed subsets of $\mathbb{R}^d$, endowed with the Chabauty-Fell topology, and the affine action of $SL_d(\mathbb{R})\ltimes\mathbb{R}^d$, we prove that the only minimal subsystems are the fixed points $\{\varnothing\}$ and $\{\mathbb{R}^d\}$. As a consequence we resolve a question of Gowers concerning the existence of certain Danzer sets: there is no set $Y \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ such that for every convex set $\mathcal{C} \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ of volume one, the cardinality of $\mathcal{C} \cap Y$ is bounded above and below by nonzero contants independent of $\mathcal{C}$. We also provide a short independent proof of this fact and deduce a quantitative consequence: for every $\varepsilon$-net $N$ for convex sets in $[0,1]^d$ there is a convex set of volume $\varepsilon$ containing at least $Ω(\log\log(1/\varepsilon))$ points of $N$.

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arXiv2015

The rel leaf and real-rel ray of the Arnoux-Yoccoz surface in genus 3

We analyze the rel leaf of the Arnoux-Yoccoz translation surface in genus 3. We show that the leaf is dense in the stratum $\mathcal{H}(2,2)^{\mathrm{odd}}$ but that the real-rel trajectory of the surface is divergent. On this real-rel trajectory, the vertical foliation of one surface is invariant under a pseudo-Anosov map (and in particular is uniquely ergodic), but the vertical foliations on all other surfaces are completely periodic.

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arXiv2015

Pointwise equidistribution with an error rate and with respect to unbounded functions

Consider $G=\SL_{ d }(\mathbb R)$ and $ Γ=\SL_{ d }(\mathbb Z)$. It was recently shown by the second-named author \cite{s} that for some diagonal subgroups $\{g_t\}\subset G$ and unipotent subgroups $U\subset G$, $g_t$-trajectories of almost all points on all $U$-orbits on $G/Γ$ are equidistributed with respect to continuous compactly supported functions $φ$ on $G/Γ$. In this paper we strengthen this result in two directions: by exhibiting an error rate of equidistribution when $φ$ is smooth and compactly supported, and by proving equidistribution with respect to certain unbounded functions, namely Siegel transforms of Riemann integrable functions on $\R^d$. For the first part we use a method based on effective double equidistribution of $g_t$-translates of $U$-orbits, which generalizes the main result of \cite{km12}. The second part is based on Schmidt's results on counting of lattice points. Number-theoretic consequences involving spiraling of lattice approximations, extending recent work of Athreya, Ghosh and Tseng \cite{agt1}, are derived using the equidistribution result.

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arXiv2015

Equivalence relations on separated nets arising from linear toral flows

In 1998, Burago-Kleiner and McMullen independently proved the existence of separated nets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ which are not bi-Lipschitz equivalent (BL) to a lattice. A finer equivalence relation than BL is bounded displacement (BD). Separated nets arise naturally as return times to a section for minimal $\mathbb{R}^d$-actions. We analyze the separated nets which arise via these constructions, focusing particularly on nets arising from linear $\mathbb{R}^d$-actions on tori. We show that generically these nets are BL to a lattice, and for some choices of dimensions and sections, they are generically BD to a lattice. We also show the existence of such nets which are not BD to a lattice.

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arXiv2014

Invariant measures for solvable groups and diophantine approximation

We show that if $\mathcal{L}$ is a line in the plane containing a badly approximable vector, then almost every point in $\mathcal{L}$ does not admit an improvement in Dirichlet's theorem. Our proof relies on a measure classification result for certain measures invariant under a non-abelian two dimensional group on the homogeneous space $\mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$. Using the measure classification theorem, we reprove a result of Shah about planar nondegenerate curves (which are not necessarily analytic), and prove analogous results for the framework of Diophantine approximation with weights. We also show that there are line segments in $\mathbb{R}^3$, which do contain badly approximable points, and for which all points do admit an improvement in Dirichlet's theorem.

math.DS↗
arXiv2014

Dense forests and Danzer sets

A set $Y\subseteq\mathbb{R}^d$ that intersects every convex set of volume $1$ is called a Danzer set. It is not known whether there are Danzer sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with growth rate $O(T^d)$. We prove that natural candidates, such as discrete sets that arise from substitutions and from cut-and-project constructions, are not Danzer sets. For cut and project sets our proof relies on the dynamics of homogeneous flows. We consider a weakening of the Danzer problem, the existence of uniformly discrete dense forests, and we use homogeneous dynamics (in particular Ratner's theorems on unipotent flows) to construct such sets. We also prove an equivalence between the above problem and a well-known combinatorial problem, and deduce the existence of Danzer sets with growth rate $O(T^d\log T)$, improving the previous bound of $O(T^d\log^{d-1} T)$.

math.MG↗
arXiv2014

Everything is illuminated

We study geometrical properties of translation surfaces: the finite blocking property, bounded blocking property, and illumination properties. These are elementary properties which can be fruitfully studied using the dynamical behavior of the SL(2,R)-action on the moduli space of translation surfaces. We characterize surfaces with the finite blocking property and bounded blocking property, completing work of the second-named author. Concerning the illumination problem, we also extend results of Hubert-Schmoll-Troubetzkoy, removing the hypothesis that the surface in question is a lattice surface, thus settling a conjecture. Our results crucially rely on the recent breakthrough results of Eskin-Mirzakhani and Eskin-Mirzakhani-Mohammadi, and on related results of Wright.

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