Orbital counting for some convergent groups (Q2656660)

Let \(\tilde{X}\) be a complete, simply connected, Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature \(K\) satisfying \(- B^{2} \leq K \leq - A^{2}\) where \(0 < A \leq 1 \leq B\). Let \(d\) denote the Riemannian distance function of \(\tilde{X}\). Let \(\Gamma\) denote a discrete, torsion-free group of isometries of \(\tilde{X}\). For \(x,y \in \tilde{X}\) and \(R > 0\) define the orbital function \(N_{\Gamma}(x,y ; R) = | \{\gamma \in \Gamma : d(\gamma x , y ) \leq R \}|\). It is an important and much studied problem to determine the asymptotic behavior of \(N_{\Gamma}(x,y ; R)\), which is independent of the choices of \(x\) and \(y\). See the introduction and the references for further information on the available literature about this topic. In this paper the authors construct examples of orbital functions with certain prescribed asymptotic behaviors when the group \(\Gamma\) is geometrically finite and the Poincaré series \[P_{\Gamma}(x,y ; s) = \sum_{\gamma \in \Gamma} \exp^{-s~d(x, \gamma y)}\] converges to the critical exponent \[\delta_{\Gamma} = \limsup~_{R \rightarrow \infty} \frac{1}{R} \log N_{\Gamma}(x,y ;R).\] It is known that the Poincaré series converges for \(s > \delta_{\Gamma}\) and diverges for \(s < \delta_{\Gamma}\). Let \(\tilde{X}(\infty)\) denote the geometric boundary at infinity of \(\tilde{X}\). If \(\Gamma\) is a discrete group of isometries of \(\tilde{X}\) and \(x\) is a point of \(\tilde{X}\), then the set of accumulation points in \(\tilde{X}(\infty)\) of the orbit \(\Gamma(x)\) is called the limit set of \(\Gamma\) and denoted by \(L(\Gamma)\). The set \(L(\Gamma)\) does not depend on the choice of \(x\) in \(\tilde{X}\). The group \(\Gamma\) acts on \(\tilde{X}(\infty)\) by homeomorphisms, and the set \(L(\Gamma)\) is invariant under \(\Gamma\). Much of the geometry of the quotient manifold \(X = \tilde{X} / \Gamma\) is determined by the topological properties of the \(\Gamma\)-action on \(L(\Gamma)\). A point \(\xi \in L(\Gamma)\) is called radial if there exist a unit speed geodesic \(\alpha\) of \(\tilde{X}\), a sequence \(\{\gamma_{n} \}\) in \(\Gamma\) and a positive number \(R\) such that \(\gamma_{n}(x) \rightarrow \xi\) for some \(x \in \tilde{X}\) as \(n \rightarrow \infty\) and \(d(\gamma_{n}(x), \alpha) \leq R\) for all \(n\). A point \(\xi \in L(\Gamma)\) is called parabolic if the subgroup \(\Gamma_{\xi}\) of \(\Gamma\) that fixes \(\xi\) leaves invariant all horospheres in \(\tilde{X}\) of \(\xi\). Call \(\xi \in L(\Gamma)\) cocompact parabolic if \(\xi\) is parabolic and \(\Gamma_{\xi}\) acts cocompactly on each horosphere at \(\xi\). A discrete torsion free subgroup \(\Gamma\) of isometries of \(\tilde{X}\) is called geometrically finite if there exist finitely many cocompact parabolic points \(\xi_{1}, \dots , \xi_{N}\) in \(L(\Gamma)\) such that every point \(\xi\) in \(L(\Gamma)\) is either radial or of the form \(\gamma(\xi_{i})\) for some \(\gamma \in \Gamma\) and some \(i\) with \(1 \leq i \leq N\). If \(X\) has finite volume, then \(X\) is geometrically finite. If \(\Gamma\) is geometrically finite, then the Riemannian quotient manifold \(X = \tilde{X} / \Gamma\) has finitely many exponentially shrinking cusps \(\{C_{1}, \dots , C_{N} \}\) that arise from the cocompact parabolic points \(\xi_{1}, \dots , \xi_{N}\) in \(L(\Gamma)\). Moreover, if \(\alpha\) is a divergent geodesic of X whose tangent vectors are nonwandering with respect to the geodesic flow, then \(\alpha\) ultimately travels down one of these cusps. A function \(L : \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is called slowly varying if it is positive and measurable and if \(\lim_{t \rightarrow \infty}~L(\lambda ~t) / L(t) = 1\) for every positive number \(\lambda\). The authors prove the following main result: Theorem. For any \(\alpha \in [1,2]\) and any slowly varying function \(L : \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) there exist a complete, simply connected Riemannian manifold \(\tilde{X}\) with pinched negative sectional curvature and a geometrically finite group \(\Gamma\) of isometries of \(\tilde{X}\) whose Poincaré series converges to the critical exponent \(\delta_{\Gamma}\) and such that the orbital function \(N_{\Gamma}(x,x ; R)\) is asymptotic to \(C(x) \frac{L(R)}{R^{\alpha}}~ \exp(\delta_{\Gamma}R) \), where \(C : \tilde{X} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a positive function.