arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Pablo Lessa.
We study the volume growth of horospheres in a Heintze group of the form R ___ A R d with A a diagonal derivation. We conclude that the isometry and quasi-isometry classes of horospheres (with their intrinsic geometry) coincide. Furthermore, if A is not a scalar multiple of the identity, then there are exactly two such classes, characterized by their volume growth, which we calculate explicitly.
We study the distribution of the angles between Oseledets subspaces and their log-integrability, focusing on dimension $2$. For random i.i.d. products of matrices, we construct examples of probability measures on $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ with finite first moment where the Oseledets angle is not log-integrable. We also show that for probability measures with finite second moment the angle is always log-integrable. We then consider general measurable $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{R})$-cocycles over an arbitrary ergodic automorphism of a non-atomic Lebesgue space, proving that no integrability condition on the matrix distribution ensures log-integrability of the angle. In fact, the joint distribution of the Oseledets spaces can be chosen arbitrarily. A similar flexibility result for bounded cocycles holds under an unavoidable technical restriction.
We study quasi-isometric representations of finitely generated non-abelian free groups into some higher rank semi-simple Lie groups which are not Anosov, nor approximated by Anosov. We show in some cases that these can be perturbed to be non-quasi-isometric, or to have some instability properties with respect to their action on the flag space.
We prove a structure theorem for ergodic homological rotation sets of homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity on a closed orientable hyperbolic surface: this set is made of a finite number of pieces that are either one-dimensional or almost convex. The latter ones give birth to horseshoes; in the case of a zero-entropy homeomorphism we show that there exists a geodesic lamination containing the directions in which generic orbits with respect to ergodic invariant probabilities turn around the surface under iterations of the homeomorphism. The proof is based on the idea of $\textit{geodesic tracking}$ of orbits that are typical for some invariant measure by geodesics on the surface, that allows to get links between the dynamics of such points and the one of the geodesic flow on some invariant subset of the unit tangent bundle of the surface.
We consider a representation of a finitely generated CAT(--K) group $Γ$ in SL(d, R) that is Zariski dense and k-Anosov for at least two values of k. We exhibit a gap for the Minkowski dimension of minimal sets for the action of $Γ$ on flags spaces. The proof uses a variational principle for the action on partial flags.
We consider a random walk on $SL_d(\mathbb{R})$ with finite first moment and finite entropy. We show that the distributions of the unstable flag space and of the stable flag space are exact dimensional.
We prove that the harmonic measures of certain finite range random walks on Fuchsian Schottky groups, have dimension strictly smaller than the Hausdorff dimension of the corresponding limit set.
Consider a closed surface $M$ with negative Euler characteristic, and an admissible probability measure on the fundamental group of $M$ with finite first moment. Corresponding to each point in the Teichmüller space of $M$, there is an associated random walk on the hyperbolic plane. We show that the speed of this random walk is a proper function on the Teichmüller space of $M$, and we relate the growth of the speed to the Teichmüller distance to a basepoint. One key argument is an adaptation of Gouëzel's pivoting techniques to actions of a fixed group on a sequence of hyperbolic metric spaces.
For a probability measure $μ$ on SL d (R), we consider the Furstenberg stationary measure on the space of flags. Under general non-degeneracy conditions, if $μ$ is discrete and if g log g d$μ$(g) < +$\infty$, then the measure $ν$ is exact-dimensional.
We consider the control problem where, given an orthonormal tangent frame in the hyperbolic plane or three dimensional hyperbolic space, one is allowed to transport the frame a fixed distance $r > 0$ along the geodesic in direction of the first vector, or rotate it in place a right angle. We characterize the values of $r > 0$ for which the set of orthonormal frames accessible using these transformations is discrete. In the hyperbolic plane this is equivalent to solving the discreteness problem for a particular one parameter family of two-generator subgroups of $PSL_2(\mathbb{R})$. In the three dimensional case we solve this problem for a particular one parameter family of subgroups of the isometry group which have four generators.
We extend a result of Ledrappier, Hochman, and Solomyak on exact dimensionality of stationary measures for $\text{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ to disintegrations of stationary measures for $\text{GL}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ onto the one dimensional foliations of the space of flags obtained by forgetting a single subspace. The dimensions of these conditional measures are expressed in terms of the gap between consecutive Lyapunov exponents, and a certain entropy associated to the group action on the one dimensional foliation they are defined on. It is shown that the entropies thus defined are also related to simplicity of the Lyapunov spectrum for the given measure on $\text{GL}(\mathbb{R}^d)$.
We study a family of mappings from the powers of the unit tangent sphere at a point to a complete Riemannian manifold with non-positive sectional curvature, whose behavior is related to the spherical mean operator and the geodesic random walks on the manifold. We show that for odd powers of the unit tangent sphere the mappings are fold maps. Some consequences on the regularity of the transition density of geodesic random walks, and on the eigenfunctions of the spherical mean operator are discussed and related to previous work.
We prove a formula for the speed of distance stationary random sequences generalizing the law of large numbers of Karlsson and Ledrappier. A particular case is the classical formula for the largest Lyapunov exponent of i.i.d.\ matrix products, but our result has applications in various different contexts. In many situations it gives a method to estimate the speed, and in others it allows to obtain results of dimension drop for escape measures related to random walks. We show applications to stationary reversible random trees with conductances, Bernoulli bond percolation of Cayley graphs, and random walks on cocompact Fuchsian groups.
We prove a formula for the speed of distance stationary random sequences. A particular case is the classical formula for the largest Lyapunov exponent of an i.i.d. product of two by two matrices in terms of a stationary measure on projective space. We apply this result to Poisson-Delaunay random walks on Riemannian symmetric spaces. In particular, we obtain sharp estimates for the asymptotic behavior of the speed of hyperbolic Poisson-Delaunay random walks when the intensity of the Poisson point process goes to zero. This allows us to prove that a dimension drop phenomena occurs for the harmonic measure associated to these random walks. With the same technique we give examples of co-compact Fuchsian groups for which the harmonic measure of the simple random walk has dimension less than one.
We prove that any stationary random graph satisfying a growth condition and having positive entropy almost surely admits an infinite dimensional space of bounded harmonic functions. Applications to random infinite planar triangulations and Delaunay graphs are given.
We prove that the Teichmüller space of the Hirsch foliation (a minimal foliation of a closed 3-manifold by non-compact hyperbolic surfaces) is homeomorphic to the space of closed curves in the plane. This allows us to show that that the space of hyperbolic metrics on the foliation is a trivial principal fiber bundle. And that the structure group of this bundle, the arc-connected component of the identity in the group of homeomorphisms which are smooth on each leaf and vary continuously in the smooth topology in the transverse direction of the foliation, is contractible.
We introduce the notion of a stationary random manifold and develop the basic entropy theory for it. Examples include manifolds admitting a compact quotient under isometries and generic leaves of a compact foliation. We prove that the entropy of an ergodic stationary random manifold is zero if and only if the manifold satisfies the Liouville property almost surely, and is positive if and only if it admits an infinite dimensional space of bounded harmonic functions almost surely. Upper and lower bounds for the entropy are provided in terms of the linear drift of Brownian motion and average volume growth of the manifold. Other almost sure properties of these random manifolds are also studied.
We show that the Gromov-Hausdorff limit of a sequence of leaves in a compact foliation is a covering space of the limiting leaf which is no larger than this leaf's holonomy cover. We also show that convergence to such a limit is smooth instead of merely Gromov-Hausdorff. Corollaries include Reeb's local stability theorem, part of Epstein's local structure theorem for foliations by compact leaves, and a continuity theorem of Alvarez and Candel. Several examples are discussed.