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Jayadev S. Athreya

Publications and source records attributed to Jayadev S. Athreya.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2015

Right-angled billiards and volumes of moduli spaces of quadratic differentials on $\mathbb{C}P^1$

We use the relation between the volumes of the strata of meromorphic quadratic differentials with at most simple poles on the Riemann sphere and counting functions of the number of (bands of) closed geodesics in associated flat metrics with singularities to prove a very explicit formula for the volume of each such stratum conjectured by M. Kontsevich a decade ago. The proof is based on a formula for the Lyapunov exponents of the geodesic flow on the moduli space, which gives a recursive formula from which the volumes could be recovered. An appendix with an ergodic theorem proved by Jon Chaika is added to the current version. Applying this ergodic theorem to the Teichmueller geodesic flow we obtain EXACT quadratic asymptotics for the number of (bands of) closed trajectories and for the number of generalized diagonals in almost all right-angled billiards. All coefficients in the asymptotics (expressed in terms of the associated Siegel-Veech constants) are explicitly computed.

math.DS↗
arXiv2014

Spiraling of approximations and spherical averages of Siegel transforms

We consider the question of how approximations satisfying Dirichlet's theorem spiral around vectors in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We give pointwise almost everywhere results (using only the Birkhoff ergodic theorem on the space of lattices). In addition, we show that for $\textit{every}$ unimodular lattice, on average, the directions of approximates spiral in a uniformly distributed fashion on the $d-1$ dimensional unit sphere. For this second result, we adapt a very recent proof of Marklof and Strömbergsson \cite{MS3} to show a spherical average result for Siegel transforms on $\operatorname{SL}_{d+1}(\mathbb{R})/\operatorname{SL}_{d+1}(\mathbb{Z})$. Our techniques are elementary. Results like this date back to the work of Eskin-Margulis-Mozes \cite{EMM} and Kleinbock-Margulis \cite{KM} and have wide-ranging applications. We also explicitly construct examples in which the directions are not uniformly distributed.

math.NT↗
arXiv2014

Radial Density in Apollonian Packings

Given an Apollonian Circle Packing $\mathcal{P}$ and a circle $C_0 = \partial B(z_0, r_0)$ in $\mathcal{P}$, color the set of disks in $\mathcal{P}$ tangent to $C_0$ red. What proportion of the concentric circle $C_ε = \partial B(z_0, r_0 + ε)$ is red, and what is the behavior of this quantity as $ε\rightarrow 0$? Using equidistribution of closed horocycles on the modular surface $\mathbb{H}^2/SL(2, \mathbb{Z})$, we show that the answer is $\frac{3}π = 0.9549\dots$ We also describe an observation due to Alex Kontorovich connecting the rate of this convergence in the Farey-Ford packing to the Riemann Hypothesis. For the analogous problem for Soddy Sphere packings, we find that the limiting radial density is $\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2V_T}=0.853\dots$, where $V_T$ denotes the volume of an ideal hyperbolic tetrahedron with dihedral angles $π/3$.

math.NT↗
arXiv2014

Logarithm Laws for Unipotent Flows, II

We prove analogs of the logarithm laws of Sullivan and Kleinbock-Margulis in the context of unipotent flows. In particular, we prove results for horospherical actions on homogeneous spaces $G/Γ$. We describe some relations with multi-dimensional diophantine approximation.

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arXiv2014

Gap distributions and homogeneous dynamics

We survey the use of dynamics of $SL(2, \R)$-actions to understand gap distributions for various sequences of subsets of $[0, 1)$, particularly those arising from special trajectories of various two-dimensional dynamical systems. We state and prove an abstract theorem that gives a unified explanation for some of the examples we present.

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arXiv2014

Random Affine Lattices

We give a bound on the probability that a randomly chosen affine unimodular lattice has large holes, and a similar bound on the probability of large holes in the spectrum of a random flat torus. We discuss various motivations and generalizations, and state several open questions.

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arXiv2014

Growth in Right-Angled Groups and Monoids

We derive functional relationships between spherical generating functions of graph monoids, right-angled Artin groups and right-angled Coxeter groups. We use these relationships to express the spherical generating function of a right-angled Artin group in terms of the clique polynomial of its defining graph. We also describe algorithms for computing the geodesic generating functions of these structures.

math.GR↗
arXiv2013

The gap distribution of slopes on the golden L

We give an explicit formula for the limiting gap distribution of slopes of saddle connections on the golden L, or any translation surface in its SL(2, R)-orbit, in particular the double pentagon. This is the first explicit computation of the distribution of gaps for a flat surface that is not a torus cover.

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arXiv2013

Counting generalized Jenkins-Strebel differentials

We study the combinatorial geometry of "lattice" Jenkins--Strebel differentials with simple zeroes and simple poles on $\mathbb{C}P^1$ and of the corresponding counting functions. Developing the results of M. Kontsevich we evaluate the leading term of the symmetric polynomial counting the number of such "lattice" Jenkins-Strebel differentials having all zeroes on a single singular layer. This allows us to express the number of general "lattice" Jenkins-Strebel differentials as an appropriate weighted sum over decorated trees. The problem of counting Jenkins-Strebel differentials is equivalent to the problem of counting pillowcase covers, which serve as integer points in appropriate local coordinates on strata of moduli spaces of meromorphic quadratic differentials. This allows us to relate our counting problem to calculations of volumes of these strata . A very explicit expression for the volume of any stratum of meromorphic quadratic differentials recently obtained by the authors leads to an interesting combinatorial identity for our sums over trees.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

Buildings, Extensions, and Volume Growth Entropy

Let F be a non-Archimedean local field and let E be a finite extension of F. Let G be a split semisimple F group. We discuss how to compare volumes on the Bruhat-Tits buildings B_E and B_F of G(E) and G(F) respectively.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

A Poincaré section for horocycle flow on the space of lattices

We construct a Poincaré section for the horocycle flow on the modular surface $SL(2, \R)/SL(2, \Z)$, and study the associated first return map, which coincides with a transformation (the {\it BCZ map}) defined by Boca-Cobeli-Zaharescu. We classify ergodic invariant measures for this map and prove equidistribution of periodic orbits. As corollaries, we obtain results on the average depth of cusp excursions and on the distribution of gaps for Farey sequences and slopes of lattice vectors.

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arXiv2012

Logarithm laws for strong unstable foliations in negative curvature and non-Archimedian Diophantine approximation

Given for instance a finite volume negatively curved Riemannian manifold $M$, we give a precise relation between the logarithmic growth rates of the excursions into cusps neighborhoods of the strong unstable leaves of negatively recurrent unit vectors of $M$ and their linear divergence rates under the geodesic flow. As an application to non-Archimedian Diophantine approximation in positive characteristic, we relate the growth of the orbits of lattices under one-parameter unipotent subgroups of $\GL_2(\wh K)$ with approximation exponents and continued fraction expansions of elements of the field $\wh K$ of formal Laurent series over a finite field.

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arXiv2012

Cusp Excursions on Parameter Spaces

We prove several results for dynamics of $SL(d, \R)$-actions on non-compact parameter spaces by studying associated discrete sets in Euclidean spaces. This allows us to give elementary proofs of logarithm laws for horocycle flows on hyperbolic surfaces and moduli spaces of flat surfaces. We also give applications to quantitative equidistribution and Diophantine approximation.

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arXiv2011

The distribution of gaps for saddle connection directions

Motivated by the study of billiards in polygons, we prove fine results for the distribution of gaps of directions of saddle connections on translation surfaces. As an application we prove that for almost every holomorphic differential $ω$ on a Riemann surface of genus $g \geq 2$ the smallest gap between saddle connection directions of length at most a fixed length decays faster than quadratically in the length. We also characterize the exceptional set: the decay rate is not faster than quadratic if and only if $ω$ is a lattice surface.

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arXiv2011

Ultrametric Logarithm Laws, II

We prove positive characteristic versions of the logarithm laws of Sullivan and Kleinbock-Margulis and obtain related results in Metric Diophantine Approximation.

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