Sparse equidistribution of unipotent orbits in finite-volume quotients of \(\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)\) (Q316977)

\textit{A. Venkatesh} [Ann. Math. (2) 172, No. 2, 989--1094 (2010; Zbl 1214.11051)] introduced techniques using discrepancy to show that if \(\Gamma<\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) is a uniform lattice and \(\gamma>0\) is a small parameter chosen depending on the spectral gap of the Laplacian on the quotient space \(\Gamma\backslash \mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) then \((1/N)\sum_{n=0}^{N-1}f(pu(n^{1+\gamma}))\to\int_{\Gamma\backslash \mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})} f\text{{d}}\mu\) as \(N\to\infty\) for any point \(p\in\Gamma\backslash \mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) and continuous function \(f\) on \(\Gamma\backslash \mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})\), where \(u(t)\) is the usual unipotent matrix \(\begin{pmatrix}1&t\\0&1\end{pmatrix}\). This equidistribution property along the sparse sequence \((n^{1+\gamma})\) was strengthened by \textit{J. Tanis} and \textit{P. Vishe} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2015, No. 24, 13728--13756 (2015; Zbl 1357.37058)] to remove the dependence of \(\gamma>0\) on the spectral gap, giving a uniform result for a fixed \(\gamma>0\). Here the case of a non-uniform lattice is considered, proving a sparse equidistribution result along the lines of a conjecture of \textit{N. A. Shah} [Duke Math. J. 75, No. 3, 711--732 (1994; Zbl 0818.22005)]. In order to deal with the possibility of exceptional orbits in this non-compact setting a Diophantine condition is introduced, and the main result is that the same equidistribution holds along the same sparse sequence for small \(\gamma>0\) and initial point \(p\) satisfying the Diophantine condition.