This paper develops new techniques for studying smooth dynamical systems in the presence of a Carnot–Carathéodory metric. Principally, we employ the theory of Margulis and Mostow, Métivier, Mitchell, and Pansu on tangent cones to establish resonances between Lyapunov exponents. We apply these results in three different settings. First, we explore rigidity properties of smooth dominated splittings for Anosov diffeomorphisms and flows via associated smooth Carnot–Carathéodory metrics. Second, we obtain local rigidity properties of higher hyperbolic rank metrics in a neighborhood of a locally symmetric one. For the latter application we also prove structural stability of the Brin–Pesin asymptotic holonomy group for frame flows. Finally, we obtain local rigidity properties for uniform lattice actions on the ideal boundary of quaternionic and octonionic symmetric spaces.

We prove that the asymptotics of ergodic integrals along an invariant foliation of a toral Anosov diffeomorphism, or of a pseudo-Anosov diffeomorphism on a compact orientable surface of higher genus, is determined (up to a logarithmic error) by the action of the diffeomorphism on the cohomology of the surface. As a consequence of our argument and of the results of Giulietti and Liverani [Parabolic dynamics and anisotropic Banach spaces. J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 21(9) (2019), 2793–2858] on horospherical averages, toral Anosov diffeomorphisms have no Ruelle resonances in the open interval $(1, e^{h_{\mathrm {top}}})$.

We consider families of random products of close-by Anosov diffeomorphisms, and show that statistical stability and linear response hold for the associated families of equivariant and stationary measures. Our analysis relies on the study of the top Oseledets space of a parametrized transfer operator cocycle, as well as ad-hoc abstract perturbation statements. As an application, we show that, when the quenched central limit theorem (CLT) holds, under the conditions that ensure linear response for our cocycle, the variance in the CLT depends differentiably on the parameter.

Let M be a compact smooth manifold without boundary. Based on results by Good and Meddaugh [Invent. Math. 220 (2020), 715–736], we prove that a strong distributional chaos is $C^0$-generic in the space of continuous self-maps (respectively, homeomorphisms) of M. The results contain answers to questions by Li, Li and Tu [Chaos 26 (2016), 093103] and Moothathu [Topology Appl. 158 (2011), 2232–2239] in the zero-dimensional case. A related counter-example on the chain components under shadowing is also given.

We give a finitary criterion for the convergence of measures on non-elementary geometrically finite hyperbolic orbifolds to the unique measure of maximal entropy. We give an entropy criterion controlling escape of mass to the cusps of the orbifold. Using this criterion, we prove new results on the distribution of collections of closed geodesics on such an orbifold, and as a corollary, we prove the equidistribution of closed geodesics up to a certain length in amenable regular covers of geometrically finite orbifolds.

We construct an invariant measure for a piecewise analytic interval map whose Lyapunov exponent is not defined. Moreover, for a set of full measure, the pointwise Lyapunov exponent is not defined. This map has a Lorenz-like singularity and non-flat critical points.

In this paper, we classify the three-dimensional partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms whose stable, unstable, and central distributions $E^s$, $E^u$, and $E^c$ are smooth, such that $E^s\oplus E^u$ is a contact distribution, and whose non-wandering set equals the whole manifold. We prove that up to a finite quotient or a finite power, they are smoothly conjugated either to a time-map of an algebraic contact-Anosov flow, or to an affine partially hyperbolic automorphism of a nil-${\mathrm {Heis}}{(3)}$-manifold. The rigid geometric structure induced by the invariant distributions plays a fundamental part in the proof.

We set out some general criteria to prove the K-property, refining the assumptions used in an earlier paper for the flow case, and introducing the analogous discrete-time result. We also introduce one-sided $\lambda $-decompositions, as well as multiple techniques for checking the pressure gap required to show the K-property. We apply our results to the family of Mañé diffeomorphisms and the Katok map. Our argument builds on the orbit decomposition theory of Climenhaga and Thompson.

For a $\psi $-mixing process $\xi _0,\xi _1,\xi _2,\ldots $ we consider the number ${\mathcal N}_N$ of multiple returns $\{\xi _{q_{i,N}(n)}\in {\Gamma }_N,\, i=1,\ldots ,\ell \}$ to a set ${\Gamma }_N$ for n until either a fixed number N or until the moment $\tau _N$ when another multiple return $\{\xi _{q_{i,N}(n)}\in {\Delta }_N,\, i=1,\ldots ,\ell \}$, takes place for the first time where ${\Gamma }_N\cap {\Delta }_N=\emptyset $ and $q_{i,N}$, $i=1,\ldots ,\ell $ are certain functions of n taking on non-negative integer values when n runs from 0 to N. The dependence of $q_{i,N}(n)$ on both n and N is the main novelty of the paper. Under some restrictions on the functions $q_{i,N}$ we obtain Poisson distributions limits of ${\mathcal N}_N$ when counting is until N as $N\to \infty $ and geometric distributions limits when counting is until $\tau _N$ as $N\to \infty $. We obtain also similar results in the dynamical systems setup considering a $\psi $-mixing shift T on a sequence space ${\Omega }$ and studying the number of multiple returns $\{ T^{q_{i,N}(n)}{\omega }\in A^a_n,\, i=1,\ldots ,\ell \}$ until the first occurrence of another multiple return $\{ T^{q_{i,N}(n)}{\omega }\in A^b_m,\, i=1,\ldots ,\ell \}$ where $A^a_n,\, A_m^b$ are cylinder sets of length n and m constructed by sequences $a,b\in {\Omega }$, respectively, and chosen so that their probabilities have the same order.

The aim of this paper is to establish exponential mixing of frame flows for convex cocompact hyperbolic manifolds of arbitrary dimension with respect to the Bowen–Margulis–Sullivan measure. Some immediate applications include an asymptotic formula for matrix coefficients with an exponential error term as well as the exponential equidistribution of holonomy of closed geodesics. The main technical result is a spectral bound on transfer operators twisted by holonomy, which we obtain by building on Dolgopyat's method.

We study the ergodic properties of horospheres on rank 1 manifolds with non-positive curvature. We prove that the horospheres are equidistributed under the action of the geodesic flow towards the Bowen–Margulis measure, on a large class of manifolds. In the case of surfaces, we define a parametrization of the horocyclic flow on the set of horocycles containing a rank 1 vector that is recurrent under the action of the geodesic flow. We prove that the horocyclic flow in restriction to this set is uniquely ergodic. The results are valid for large classes of manifolds, including the compact ones.

We outline the flexibility program in smooth dynamics, focusing on flexibility of Lyapunov exponents for volume-preserving diffeomorphisms. We prove flexibility results for Anosov diffeomorphisms admitting dominated splittings into one-dimensional bundles.

Under a suitable bunching condition, we establish that stable holonomies inside center-stable manifolds for $C^{1+\beta }$ diffeomorphisms are uniformly bi-Lipschitz and, in fact, $C^{1+\mathrm {H}\ddot{\rm o}\mathrm {lder}}$. This verifies the ergodicity of suitably center-bunched, essentially accessible, partially hyperbolic $C^{1+\beta }$ diffeomorphisms and verifies that the Ledrappier–Young entropy formula holds for $C^{1+\beta }$ diffeomorphisms of compact manifolds.

We extend the results of Hasselblatt and Schmeling [Dimension product structure of hyperbolic sets. Modern Dynamical Systems and Applications. Eds. B. Hasselblatt, M. Brin and Y. Pesin. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2004, pp. 331–345] and of Rams and Simon [Hausdorff and packing measure for solenoids. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys. 23 (2003), 273–292] for $C^{1+\varepsilon }$ hyperbolic, (partially) linear solenoids $\Lambda $ over the circle embedded in $\mathbb {R}^3$ non-conformally attracting in the stable discs $W^s$ direction, to nonlinear solenoids. Under the assumptions of transversality and on the Lyapunov exponents for an appropriate Gibbs measure imposing thinness, as well as the assumption that there is an invariant $C^{1+\varepsilon }$ strong stable foliation, we prove that Hausdorff dimension $\operatorname {\mathrm {HD}}(\Lambda \cap W^s)$ is the same quantity $t_0$ for all $W^s$ and else $\mathrm {HD}(\Lambda )=t_0+1$. We prove also that for the packing measure, $0<\Pi _{t_0}(\Lambda \cap W^s)<\infty $, but for Hausdorff measure, $\mathrm {HM}_{t_0}(\Lambda \cap W^s)=0$ for all $W^s$. Also $0<\Pi _{1+t_0}(\Lambda ) <\infty $ and $\mathrm {HM}_{1+t_0}(\Lambda )=0$. A technical part says that the holonomy along unstable foliation is locally Lipschitz, except for a set of unstable leaves whose intersection with every $W^s$ has measure $\mathrm {HM}_{t_0}$ equal to 0 and even Hausdorff dimension less than $t_0$. The latter holds due to a large deviations phenomenon.

Let X be a compact, geodesically complete, locally CAT(0) space such that the universal cover admits a rank-one axis. Assume X is not homothetic to a metric graph with integer edge lengths. Let $P_t$ be the number of parallel classes of oriented closed geodesics of length at most t; then $\lim \nolimits _{t \to \infty } P_t / ({e^{ht}}/{ht}) = 1$, where h is the entropy of the geodesic flow on the space $GX$ of parametrized unit-speed geodesics in X.

We refine the recent local rigidity result for the marked length spectrum obtained by the first and third author in [GL19] and give an alternative proof using the geodesic stretch between two Anosov flows and some uniform estimate on the variance appearing in the central limit theorem for Anosov geodesic flows. In turn, we also introduce a new pressure metric on the space of isometry classes, which reduces to the Weil–Petersson metric in the case of Teichmüller space and is related to the works [BCLS15, MM08].

In this paper we prove a perturbative result for a class of ${\mathbb Z}^2$ actions on Heisenberg nilmanifolds that have Diophantine properties. Along the way we prove cohomological rigidity and obtain a tame splitting for the cohomology with coefficients in smooth vector fields for such actions.

We compute the gap distribution of directions of saddle connections for two classes of translation surfaces. One class will be the translation surfaces arising from gluing two identical tori along a slit. These yield the first explicit computations of gap distributions for non-lattice translation surfaces. We show that this distribution has support at zero and quadratic tail decay. We also construct examples of translation surfaces in any genus $d>1$ that have the same gap distribution as the gap distribution of two identical tori glued along a slit. The second class we consider are twice-marked tori and saddle connections between distinct marked points with a specific orientation. These results can be interpreted as the gap distribution of slopes of affine lattices. We obtain our results by translating the question of gap distributions to a dynamical question of return times to a transversal under the horocycle flow on an appropriate moduli space.

We consider $C^{r}$-diffeomorphisms ($1 \leq r \leq +\infty$) of a compact smooth manifold having two pairs of hyperbolic periodic points of different indices which admit transverse heteroclinic points and are connected through a blender. We prove that, by giving an arbitrarily $C^{r}$-small perturbation near the periodic points, we can produce a periodic point for which the first return map in the center direction coincides with the identity map up to order $r$, provided the transverse heteroclinic points satisfy certain natural conditions involving higher derivatives of their transition maps in the center direction. As a consequence, we prove that $C^{r}$-generic diffeomorphisms in a small neighborhood of the diffeomorphism under consideration exhibit super-exponential growth of number of periodic points. We also give examples which show the necessity of the conditions we assume.

In this paper, we study the centralizer of a partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism on ${\mathbb T}^3$ which is homotopic to an Anosov automorphism, and we show that either its centralizer is virtually trivial or such diffeomorphism is smoothly conjugate to its linear part.