Primitive rational points on expanding horospheres in Hilbert modular surfaces (Q2030234)

To illustrate the main result of this article we consider the simplest case where \(G = \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\) and \(\Gamma = \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\). In this case there are three algebraically related flows on \(\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\) determined by the matrices (\(t >0\)) \[a(t) = \left (\begin{array} {cc} t^{-1} & 0 \\ 0 & t \end{array} \right), \] \[u(t) = \left (\begin{array} {cc} 1 & t \\ 0 & 1 \end{array} \right)\] \[v(t) = \left (\begin{array} {cc} 1 & 0 \\ t & 1 \end{array} \right).\] These represent respectively the geodesic flow (reparametrized), the unstable horocycle flow and the stable horocycle flow. These flows descend to the quotient space \(X = \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R}) / \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\). For fixed positive \(t\) the points \(\Gamma u(t) a(y)\) diverge to infinity in \(X\) as \(y \rightarrow \infty \Leftrightarrow t \in \mathbb{Q}\). As \(y \rightarrow \infty\) the divergence in \(G/\Gamma\) of the points \(\Gamma u(j/n) a(y)\), where \(\gcd(j,n) = 1\), is uniform if \( y \geq \log n\). It remains to describe the behavior of these points when \(y = \alpha \log n,\ \alpha \in (0,1)\). The points \(\Gamma u(t) a(y),\ t \in \mathbb{Q},\ y > 0\) are called {rational} points of the unstable horocycle orbit \(\Gamma u(t) a(y),\ t \in \mathbb{R}\), in \(G / \Gamma\). The rational points of the orbits of the unstable horocycle flows equidistribute in \(X\) relative to the Haar measure on \(G/\Gamma\). More precisely, the main result of this article becomes in this special case the following statement. Theorem. There exists an \(L^{2}\)-Sobolev norm on \(C^{\infty}_{c}(G/\Gamma)\) such that for all \(y > 0\) and all \(\alpha \in (0,1)\) one has \[ \left| \frac{1}{y} \sum_{j=1} ^{y} f(\Gamma u_{j/y} a(y^{\alpha}) - \int_{G/\Gamma} f \right| \ll \alpha^{-\frac{1}{2}} \left(\frac{\log \log y}{\log y}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}} S(f) \] for all \(f \in C^{\infty}_{c}(G/\Gamma)\). We roughly sketch the extension in this article of the result above. Let \(\mathbb{K}\) be a totally real number field of degree \(d\) over \(\mathbb{Q}\), and let \(\sigma_{1}, \dots \sigma_{d}\) denote the elements of the Galois group. Let \(\mathfrak{o}\) be the ring of integers of \(\mathbb{K}\). From this data one determines an irreducible lattice \(\Gamma\) in \(G = \mathrm{SL}(2,d) \times \dots \times \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\) (\(d\) times), such that \(\Gamma\) is isomorphic to \(\mathrm{SL}_{2}(\mathfrak{o})\). For \(t = (t_{1}, \dots, t_{d}) \in \mathbb{R}^{d}\) define \(U(t) \in G\) to be the element whose \(i\)-th coordinate is \(u(t_{i})\). Define \(U(t)\) and \(A(t)\), \(t > 0\), in a similar fashion. In the result stated above replace \(a(t), u(t)\) by \(A(t), U(t)\). Replace an integer \(y > 0\) by an element \(y \in \mathfrak{o}\) whose Galois conjugates are all positive. Replace the averages over \(\mathbb{K}\) with averages over \(N(\mathbb{K})\), where \(N(\mathbb{K})\) is the index of \(y \mathfrak{o}\) in \(\mathfrak{o}\). Replace \[\frac{\log \log y}{\log y}\] by \[\frac{\log \log N(y)^{d}}{\log N(y)}.\]