Equidistribution of weakly special submanifolds and \(o\)-minimality: geometric André-Oort (Q6621689)

Let \(X\) be a Hermitian symmetric domain of non-compact type and \(\Gamma \) a torsion free arithmetic subgroup of the group of holomorphic automorphisms of the domain \(X\). The quotient \(\Gamma \backslash X\) then acquires a structure of a quasiporjective variety, to be refereed to as an arithmetic variety, defined over a number field (Baily-Borel). A subvariety in an arithmetic variety is said to be weakly special if the subvariety is a finite union of arithmetic varieties coming from smaller Hermitian domains in \(X\) (with appropriate conditions so that the \(\Gamma \backslash \Gamma Y\) is also an arithmetic variety). \N\NThe geometric André-Oort conjecture says that if a subvariety \(V\) of an arithmetic variety contains a Zariski dense subset consisting of weakly special varieties, then it is itself weakly special or is a product of weakly special subvarieties. This generalises the original André Oort conjecture whichasserted the same assuming that the \Nsubvariety \(V\) conitans a Zariski dense set of special points.\N\NThis was proved by the second author [J. Reine Angew. Math. 606, 193--216 (2007; Zbl 1137.11043)] by using transcendence results. In the present paper the autors prove this geometric André-Oort conjecture using ergodic theoretic methods related to Ratner's theorem.