Statistic of the winding of geodesics on a Riemann surface with finite area and constant negative curvature (Q1382011)

The authors study the asymptotic winding of geodesics in a hyperbolic surface \(M\) of finite area around its cusps \(C_1, \dots, C_k\). This winding can be described as follows: Choose a smooth 1-form \(\omega\) on \(M\) whose restriction to a neighborhood \(\cup^k_{i=1} U_i\) of the cusps is closed. Let \(T^1M\) be the unit tangent bundle of \(M\) with projection \(\pi: T^1M \to M\) and geodesic flow \(\theta_t\). For a vector \(v\in T^1M\) and \(t>0\) the winding of the geodesic segment of length \(t\) about the cusps \(C_i\) can be described by the integral \(e_i(t,v)= \int^t_0 \omega (\theta_sv) {\mathbf I}_{u_i} \circ \pi\;ds\). The authors show that the joint distribution of \((e_1(t_1 \cdot)/t, \dots, e_k(t, \cdot)/t)\) converges in law towards the product of \(n\) Cauchy distributions of parameter \(| \lambda_i |/\) area \((M)\) where \(\lambda_i\) is the residue of \(\omega\) at \(C_i\). The proof uses the fact that a Brownian path on the universal covering \(\mathbb{H}^2\) of \(M\) follows a geodesic with linear speed. This, together with the explicit representation of the geodesic flow on \(\mathbb{H}^2\) as orbits of 1-parameter subgroups of \(\text{PSL} (2,\mathbb{R}) \cong T^1 \mathbb{H}^2\), enables the authors to convert the problem into a rather subtle problem in stochastic integration.