Invariant and stationary measures for the \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\) action on moduli space (Q1653852)

One can study the action of \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) on \( \mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{R})/\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{Z})\), the space of flat tori, by means of a variety of techniques. The goal of this paper is to study the ergodic properties of the action of \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) on the space of translation surfaces (better said \(\mathcal{H}(\alpha)\), a given stratum of Abelian differentials). The main theorem shows that any ergodic measure invariant under the action of the upper triangular subgroup of \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) is supported on an invariant affine submanifold. This result is inspired by the work of several authors on unipotent flows on homogeneous spaces, see, e.g., [\textit{M. Ratner}, Acta Math. 165, No. 3--4, 229--309 (1990; Zbl 0745.28010); \textit{S. Mozes}, Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 15, No. 6, 1207--1210 (1995; Zbl 0843.28008)]. While previous results are based on the polynomial divergence of unipotent flows, here the authors replace such an approach by the ``exponential drift'' introduced by \textit{Y. Benoist} and \textit{J.-F. Quint} [Ann. Math. (2) 174, No. 2, 1111--1162 (2011; Zbl 1241.22007)], still exploiting a variety of techniques on entropy and conditional measures developed in the context of homogeneous spaces. One of the core arguments needed for the exponential drift technique is that the Zariski closure of the Kontsevich-Zorich cocycle is semisimple. To prove this statement the authors implement low entropy methods, results of \textit{G. Forni} et al. [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 34, No. 2, 353--408 (2014; Zbl 1290.37002)] and results about the control of the Lyapunov spectrum of a skew-product shift map via random walk techniques (which encodes some properties of the KZ-cocycle). The use of AGY norms (or equivalent ones) [\textit{A. Avila} et al., Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 104, 143--211 (2006; Zbl 1263.37051)] is critical to control the Lyapunov exponents of studied sets. The depth of the main theorem is impressive; for example the authors can use their results to count periodic trajectories in rational billiards and obtain a weak asymptotic formula as in [\textit{A. Eskin} et al., Ann. Math. (2) 182, No. 2, 673--721 (2015; Zbl 1357.37040)]. It is an honor for this reviewer to comment on such a remarkable piece of mathematics. The techniques used in the proofs are sophisticated but very well explained. This allows the reader to understand where the difficulties are and how to use certain strategies to overcome them. The two hundred pages of this contribution are a tangible proof of the complexity of this work; the many new ideas, needed to handle the technical obstacles, are a gift for current and future generations of mathematicians.