Lattice deformations in the Heisenberg group (Q2032445)

Minkowski's theorem in the geometry of numbers shows that in any sufficiently large convex centrally symmetric open set in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) there are non-zero integral points. \textit{C. L. Siegel} [Ann. Math. (2) 46, 340--347 (1945; Zbl 0063.07011)] considered averaged lattice point counting over unimodular lattices and gave a mean value formula. Subsequently, \textit{C. A. Rogers} [Acta Math. 94, 249--287 (1955; Zbl 0065.28201)] obtained a variance bound in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) with \(n \geq 3\) while studying higher moments of functions on the space of lattices. \textit{W. Schmidt} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 95, 516--529 (1960; Zbl 0101.27904)] used the work of Rogers to show that for a nested family of Borel sets in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) with unbounded finite volumes, almost all lattices have the expected number of lattice points with explicit discrepancy bounds. \textit{B. Randol} [in: Problems in analysis. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 291--295 (1970; Zbl 0212.07002)] also considered a variance bound. \textit{J. S. Athreya} and \textit{G. A. Margulis} [J. Mod. Dyn. 3, No. 3, 359--378 (2009; Zbl 1184.37007)] used the results of Randol and Seigel to obtain a variance estimate for primitive lattice point counting allowing arbitrary Borel sets in \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\). The recent work of \textit{R. Garg} et al. [Ann. Inst. Fourier 65, No. 5, 2199--2233 (2015; Zbl 1358.52017)] discusses the lattice point count of \(\mathbb{Z}^{2n+1}\) in large centered balls in certain norms homogeneous with respect to the dilations of the \((2n+1)\)-dimensional Heisenberg group. In the present paper, variance bounds for random lattices in the case of the 3-dimensional Heisenberg group have been obtained. In particular, it is shown that very simple sets \(\mathcal{S}\subset \mathbb{R}^{3}\) have no useful variance bound for the number of primitive points of a random Heisenberg lattice in \(\mathcal{S}\). On the other hand, a natural class of sets for which optimal variance bounds exist, is also obtained. The main technique is to realize the space of Heisenberg lattices as a fiber bundle over the space of Euclidean lattices, use the action of the automorphism group of \(H(\mathbb{R})\) on it and relate it to the action of \(\mathrm{SL}(2;\mathbb{R})\) on the space of Euclidean lattices.