Large hyperbolic circles (Q6985302)

Given a uniform lattice \(\Gamma<\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) (the space \(M=\Gamma\backslash\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) is identified with the unit tangent bundle (or a two-fold cover of the unit tangent bundle) of the space \(S=\Gamma\backslash\mathbb{H}\), where \(\mathbb{H}\) is the hyperbolic upper half-plane, the group acts via Möbius transformations, and \(S\) inherits a hyperbolic metric (under the assumption that the projection of \(\Gamma\) to \(\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{R})\) is torsion-free, so \(S\) is a compact connected orientable smooth surface). The main results here give precise asymptotics for translates of circular arcs dilated by the geodesic flow on \(M\). In particular a quantitative equidistribution theorem is shown, and further results give statistical limit theorems for rescaled averages of sufficiently regular observables. How these results may be used for classical applications like the circle problem in the hyperbolic plane is discussed. The approach uses spectral methods for the asymptotics of matrix coefficients of representations of semi-simple Lie groups in the spirit of Harish-Chandra.