We prove polynomial decay of correlations for geodesic flows on a class of nonpositively curved surfaces where zero curvature only occurs along one closed geodesic. We also prove that various statistical limit laws, including the central limit theorem, are satisfied by this class of geodesic flows.
We prove exponential decay of correlations for Holder continuous observables with respect to any Gibbs measure for contact Anosov flows admitting Pesin sets with exponentially small tails. This is achieved by establishing strong spectral estimates for certain Ruelle transfer operators for such flows.
We give new examples of closed smooth 4-manifolds which support singular metrics of nonpositive curvature, but no smooth ones, thereby answering affirmatively a question of Gromov. The obstruction comes from patterns of incompressible 2-tori sufficiently complicated to force branching of geodesics for nonpositively curved metrics.
For compact and for convex co-compact oriented hyperbolic surfaces, we prove an explicit correspondence between classical Ruelle resonant states and quantum resonant states, except at negative integers where the correspondence involves holomorphic sections of line bundles.
We prove a normal form for strong magnetic fields on a closed, oriented surface and use it to derive two dynamical results for the associated flow. First, we show the existence of KAM tori and trapping regions provided a natural non-resonance condition holds. Second, we prove that the flow cannot be Zoll unless (i) the Riemannian metric has constant curvature and the magnetic function is constant, or (ii) the magnetic function vanishes and the metric is Zoll. We complement the second result by exhibiting an exotic magnetic field on a flat two-torus yielding a Zoll flow for arbitrarily small rescalings.
In this paper we study rigidity aspects of Zoll magnetic systems on closed surfaces. We characterize magnetic systems on surfaces of positive genus given by constant curvature metrics and constant magnetic functions as the only magnetic systems such that the associated Hamiltonian flow is Zoll, i.e. every orbit is closed, on every energy level. We also prove the persistence of possibly degenerate closed geodesics under magnetic perturbations in different instances.