The space of homogeneous probability measures on \(\overline{\Gamma \backslash X}^S_{\max}\) is compact (with an appendix by Jialun Li) (Q6046115)

The authors study the behaviour of sequences of homogeneous measures. More specifically, given a sequence of such measures, they are interested in describing its limit points. Previously, it was established that, under certain conditions, any limit point is either a homogeneous measure itself or a zero measure. The later case amounts to the existence of a subsequence of measures diverging to infinity and a non-divergence condition was established. Such results concerning the convergence of measures have found several remarkable applications in arithmetic geometry. However, the applicability of these tools has so far been limited to the case in which divergence to infinity can be ruled out. The goal of the present paper is to investigate limits of divergent sequences by considering them inside a Satake compactification. Ultimately, the authors show that any limit point is also a homogeneous measure supported on precisely one of the boundary components of the compactification. The main result of this paper has implications on the equidistribution properties of sequences of weakly special subvarieties, even in the situation when there is escape of mass. So, as an application, some consequences are established for the distribution of weakly special subvarieties of Shimura varieties.