The distribution of closed geodesics on the modular surface, and Duke's Theorem (Q1943953)

\noindent Let \(H\) denote the hyperbolic plane. In the late 80s Duke (with a later extension by Chelluri) associated to each integral binary quadratic form of positive fundamental discriminant \(d\) a finite collection \(\mathfrak{G}_{d}\) of geodesic segments in the unit tangent bundle of \(Y_{0}(1) = \mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z}) \setminus H\), and he showed that these geodesic segments become equidistributed in a certain sense in the unit tangent bundle of \(Y_{0}(1)\) as \(d \rightarrow \infty\) . This result was reformulated and generalized to an equidistribution result as \(d \rightarrow \infty\) by Skubenko for the imbedding of the set of integral quadratic forms of positive discriminant \(d\) into the space of real quadratic forms of discriminant +1. Skubenko's result was the analogue of an earlier equidistribution result as \(d \rightarrow - \infty\) of Linnik for integral quadratic forms of negative discriminant \(d\). In this article, the authors give a new more conceptual proof Duke's result. The two main ingredients of the proof are a basic lemma of Linnik and the uniqueness of the measure of maximal entropy for the flow \(\{\varphi_{t} \}\) on the space \(\mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z}) \setminus \mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{R})\). \newline \noindent Let \(q(x,y) = ax^{2} + b xy + cy^{2}\) be an integral binary quadratic form with discriminant \(d = b^{2} - 4ac\). The group \(\mathrm{GL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z})\) acts on the integral binary quadratic forms by \(\gamma \cdot q(x,y) = q((x,y) \cdot \gamma)\) for \(\gamma \in \mathrm{GL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z})\). Quadratic forms on the same \(\mathrm{GL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z})\)-orbit have the same discriminant, and Gauss proved that the class number \(h(d)\) of \(\mathrm{GL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z})\) orbits with a fixed discriminant \(d\) is finite. Let \(R_{\mathrm{disc}}(d)\) denote the set of integral binary quadratic forms \(q(x,y)\) whose coefficients \(a,b,c\) are relatively prime and whose discriminant is \(d\). Let \([R_{\mathrm{disc}}(d)]\) denote the finite set \(\mathrm{GL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z}) \setminus R_{\mathrm{disc}}(d)\). Let \(V_{{\mathrm{disc}, \pm 1}(\mathbb{R})}\) denote the set of real binary quadratic forms with discriminant \(\pm 1\), which may be identified with the hyperboloid \(\{(a,b,c) \in \mathbb{R}^{3} : b^{2} - 4ac = \pm 1 \}\). The set \(R_{\mathrm{disc}}(d)\) projects naturally into \(V_{\mathrm{disc}, \pm 1}(\mathbb{R})\) by the map \(q \rightarrow |d|^{- \frac{1}{2}} q\). The hyperboloids \(V_{\mathrm{disc}, \pm 1}(\mathbb{R})\) carry a natural \(\mathrm{GL}_{2}(\mathbb{R})\)-invariant measure \(\mu_{\mathrm{disc}, \pm 1}\) defined by \(\mu_{\mathrm{disc}, \pm 1} (\Omega) = \mu_{\mathbb{R}^{3}}(\mathcal{C}(\Omega))\), where \(\Omega\) is an open subset of \(V_{\mathrm{disc}, \pm 1}(\mathbb{R}), \mu_{\mathbb{R}^{3}}\) is Lebesgue measure in \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\) and \(\mathcal{C}(\Omega) = \{rx : x \in \Omega \text{ and } r \in [0,1] \}\). \newline \noindent In the late 1950s Linnik proved the following equidistribution result for negative discriminants \(d\) (the analogue for positive discriminants was later proved by Skubenko). Theorem: Let \(p > 2\) be a fixed prime, and \(d\) be a negative integer such that \((\frac{d}{p}) = 1\), i.e., \(p\) splits in the quadratic field \(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d})\). Consider the set \(|d|^{- \frac{1}{2}} R_{\mathrm{disc}(d)} \subset V_{\mathrm{disc}, - 1}(\mathbb{R})\). Let \(\varphi_{1}, \varphi_{2}\) be two continuous, compactly supported functions on \(V_{\mathrm{disc}, - 1}(\mathbb{R})\) with the integral \(\mu_{\mathrm{disc},-1}(\varphi_{2}) \neq 0\). Then \[ \frac{\sum_{x \in R_{\mathrm{disc}}(d)} \varphi_{1}(|d|^{- \frac{1}{2}}x)} { \sum_{x \in R_{\mathrm{disc}}(d)} \varphi_{2}(|d|^{- \frac{1}{2}}x)} \rightarrow \frac{\mu_{\mathrm{disc},-1}(\varphi_{1})}{\mu_{\mathrm{disc},-1}(\varphi_{2})}\;\text{as} \;d \rightarrow - \infty, (\frac{d}{p}) = 1. \] \noindent We state the extension of Skubenko's result by Duke for positive square free discriminants \(d\). To any point \((a,b,c) \in R_{\mathrm{disc}}(d)\) one associates the geodesic in the upper half plane model of \(H\) whose endpoints are \(\frac{-b \pm \sqrt{d}}{2a}\). Lift this geodesic to a geodesic flow orbit in the unit tangent bundle \(T^{1}H\). Then project this orbit to a compact geodesic flow orbit \(\gamma_{[a,b,c]}\) in \(T^{1}Y_{0}(1)\), where \(Y_{0}(1) = \mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z}) \setminus H\). The assignment \([a,b,c] \rightarrow \gamma_{[a,b,c]}\) depends only on the \(\mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z})\)-orbit of \((a,b,c)\). One obtains a finite collection of \(h(d)\) compact geodesic flow orbits \(\mathfrak{G}_{d} = \bigcup_{[a,b,c]} \gamma_{[a,b,c]} \subset T^{1}Y_{0}(1)\). The set \(\mathfrak{G}_{d}\) carries a natural probability measure \(\mu_{d}\). Let \(\mu_{L}\) denote the Lebesgue probability measure on \(T^{1}Y_{0}(1)\). \newline \noindent A discriminant \(d\) is fundamental if it is the discriminant of the ring of integers of a quadratic field. The equidistribution theorem of Duke, as extended by Chelluri, is as follows. Theorem: Let \(\varphi\) be a continuous, compactly supported function on \(T^{1}Y_{0}(1)\). Then \[ \int_{\mathfrak{G}_{d}} \varphi(t) d\mu_{d}(t) \rightarrow \int_{T^{1}Y_{0}(1)} \varphi(u) d\mu_{L}(u)\;\text{ as}\;d \rightarrow + \infty, \] where \(d\) is a fundamental discriminant.