Long hitting time, slow decay of correlations and arithmetical properties (Q968742)

Let \((X,T,\mu)\) be an ergodic system on a metric space. If the system has fast decay of correlations, then typically the ratio \(-\log\tau_r(x,x_0)/\log r\) converges, for \(r\to0\), to the local dimension of \(\mu\) at \(x_0\); here \(\tau_r(x,x_0)\) is the first integer \(n>0\) such that \(T^nx\) enters the ball of center \(x_0\) and radius \(r\). The same property holds for ``generic'' systems of arithmetical origin. The present paper constructs ``exceptional'' translations on the \(2\)-dimensional torus \(\mathbb{T}^2\) for which the property fails. Fix a real number \(\gamma>1\), and let \(\alpha,\alpha'\) be irrational numbers whose continued fraction expansions \(\{p_n/q_n\}\) and \(\{p'_n/q'_n\}\) eventually satisfy \(q'_n\geq q_n^\gamma\) and \(q_{n+1}\geq(q'_n)^\gamma\). Then the translation by \((\alpha,\alpha')\) on \(\mathbb{T}^2\) has the following property: for every \(x_0\), and every \(x\) in a set of full Lebesgue measure, we have \[ \liminf_{r\to0}\frac{\log\tau_r(x,x_0)}{-\log r}\geq\gamma. \] In particular, there is an uncountable and dense set of pairs \((\alpha,\alpha')\) (with \(\alpha\) and \(\alpha'\) both Liouville numbers) for which the above limit is infinity almost everywhere. By using other conditions on the growth rate of \(q_n\) and \(q'_n\), and a construction due to Fayad, the authors construct a smooth mixing system on the \(3\)-dimensional torus having analogous properties. They also show that such long hitting time properties force the decay of correlations to be subpolynomial.