Quantitative behavior of non-integrable systems. I (Q2204099)

This long paper is actually a joint series of several papers devoted to a quantitative description of non-integrable flat dynamical systems. As the authors write in the introduction: ``Quantitative and non-integrable together in the same sentence seems like a contradiction, or at least like a paradox. Our goal is to resolve this paradox; well, at least for infinitely many optimal flat systems.'' The authors study the similarities and the quantitative differences between these two classes of systems and give a quantitative description of non-integrable flat systems. The paper starts with a 40 pages long introduction. It presents a philosophically tuned wide-spectrum introduction to the variety of background ideas leading to the subject of the paper. This introductory chapter is divided into the following five subsection: (1) Integrable and non-integrable systems, (2) Geodesic flow, (3) Integrable systems: lack of singularity, (4) Quantitative theory of integrable systems: Superuniformity, and (5) Non-integrable systems: split-type orbit-singularity. As examples of non-integrable optimal systems the authors propose the L-shaped billiards and the geodesic flow on the cube surface. Here optimality refers to the uniform periodic dichotomy. The motivation for integrable and non-integrable systems has its roots in the behavior of physical models like the simple and the double pendulum. The quantitative background of the known examples of non-integrable optimal systems described in Chapter 2 presents the impetus leading to the paper. This second chapter entitled ``Preview of the results in a nutshell'' starts with the Katok-Zemlyakov density result, goes through the Gutkin-Veech-Boshernitzan-Furstenberg theorem, the Kerckhoff-Masur-Smillie theorem, and the Veech theorem towards a description of the main results of the paper which are in Chapter 3, ``Quantitative equidistribution: shortline method''. Here the above mentioned set of theorems is proved using techniques based on the Birkhoff's theorem and tools from combinatorics, number theory (as continued fractions or \(\beta\)-expansions) and linear algebra. The main theorem on L-surfaces can be summarized as follows: given a quadratic irrational slope, write it in the form of a \(\pm\)-even type continued fraction, and then apply digit-halving, which leads to the irregularity exponent. This quantitative shortline method provides the tool for the determination of the exact time that a geodesic spends on a particular face of a flat surface. The case of L-surfaces when the faces are squares is described in the next theorem. It shows that the maximum fluctuations of the edge-cutting sequence are much greater than the square-root size fluctuations of a random sequence. The last theorem of this subsection shows that the family of square faced test sets used to measure the uniformity can be replaced by convex subsets of a square. In the concluding subsection the authors prove a measure-theoretic transference theorem. Its Corollary gives a recipe to convert a continuous equidistribution of a concrete geodesic to a discrete equidistribution of infinite arithmetic progressions. As one may expect the paper contains many new concepts as, for instance, the irregularity exponent of a geodesic, which together with other precise numerical values of the key quantitative parameters describe the asymptotic equidistribution, the related new concept of superdensity, that describes a strongest form of the quantitative density. In the paper equidistribution and uniformity are synonyms, but the triple uniformity is another new concept giving a substantially stronger upgrading of uniformity.