arXiv research

Characterizes higher rank model geometries using antipodal sets.

Affine maps reveal higher rank structures in certain spaces.

New concept of coarse medians for higher rank symmetric spaces.

Develops sublinear Morse theory in symmetric spaces.

We show that polar actions of cohomogeneity two on simple compact Lie groups of higher rank, endowed with a biinvariant Riemannian metric, are hyperpolar. Combining this with a recent result of the second-named author, we are able to prove that polar actions induced by reductive algebraic subgroups in the isometry grou…

Study string topology on symmetric spaces, showing non-triviality and nilpotency results.

The aim of this paper is to study the spectrum of the $L^p$ Laplacian and the dynamics of the $L^p$ heat semigroup on non-compact locally symmetric spaces of higher rank. Our work here generalizes previously obtained results in the setting of locally symmetric spaces of rank one to higher rank spaces. Similarly as in t…

For real hyperbolic spaces, the dynamics of individual isometries and the geometry of the limit set of nonelementary discrete isometry groups have been studied in great detail. Most of the results were generalised to discrete isometry groups of simply connected Riemannian manifolds of pinched negative curvature. For sy…

The paper verifies a conjecture about the index of symmetric spaces.

New structural result classifies actions on symmetric spaces.

Confirming a conjecture, new CAT(0) spaces of higher rank are rigid.

The study proves no $L^2$-eigenvalues for higher rank locally symmetric spaces.

Paper develops a theory for Patterson-Sullivan measures in higher rank symmetric spaces.

We prove a rigidity theorem that shows that, under many circumstances, quasi-isometric embeddings of equal rank, higher rank symmetric spaces are close to isometric embeddings. We also produce some surprising examples of quasi-isometric embeddings of higher rank symmetric spaces. In particular, we produce embeddings of…

Local-to-global principle for Morse actions on symmetric spaces.

We generalize the higher rank rigidity theorem to a class of Finsler spaces, i.e. Berwald spaces. More precisely, we prove that a complete connected Berwald space of finite volume and bounded nonpositive flag curvature with rank at least $2$ whose universal cover is irreducible, is a locally symmetric space or a locall…

Any nonpositively curved symmetric space admits a topological compactification, namely the Hadamard compactification. For rank one spaces, this topological compactification can be endowed with a differentiable structure such that the action of the isometry group is differentiable. Moreover, the restriction of the actio…

The main result implies that a proper convex subset of an irreducible higher rank symmetric space cannot have Zariski dense stabilizer.

The prime geodesic theorem for regular geodesics in a higher rank locally symmetric space is proved. An application to class numbers is given. The proof relies on a Lefschetz formula that is based on work of Andreas Juhl.

We study the geometry and dynamics of discrete infinite covolume subgroups of higher rank semisimple Lie groups. We introduce and prove the equivalence of several conditions, capturing "rank one behavior'' of discrete subgroups of higher rank Lie groups. They are direct generalizations of rank one equivalents to convex…

The paper proves actions of lattices in higher rank groups have cost one.

The study proves conditions for CAT(0) spaces with higher rank rigidity.

We show that codimension one dimensional Jacobian of the barycentric straightening map is uniformly bounded for most of the higher rank symmetric spaces. As a consequence, we prove that the locally finite simplicial volume of most $\mathbb Q$-rank $1$ locally symmetric spaces is positive, which has been open for many y…

Let $M$ be complete nonpositively curved Riemannian manifold of finite volume whose fundamental group $Γ$ does not contain a finite index subgroup which is a product of infinite groups. We show that the universal cover $\tilde M$ is a higher rank symmetric space iff $H^2_b(M;\R)\to H^2(M;\R)$ is injective (and otherwis…

Let $X=G/K$ be a higher rank symmetric space of non-compact type, where $G$ is the connected component of the isometry group of $X$. We define the splitting rank of $X$, denoted by $\text{srk}(X)$, to be the maximal dimension of a totally geodesic submanifold $Y\subset X$ which splits off an isometric $\mathbb R$-facto…

We study quasi-isometric embeddings of symmetric spaces and non-uniform irreducible lattices in semisimple higher rank Lie groups. We show that any quasi-isometric embedding between symmetric spaces of the same rank can be decomposed into a product of quasi-isometric embeddings into irreducible symmetric spaces. We thu…

New examples of isoparametric families on non-compact symmetric spaces.

A general Lefschetz formula for the geodesic action on locally symmetric spaces is proven.

We give very flexible, concrete constructions of discrete and faithful epresentations of right-angled Artin groups into higher-rank Lie groups. Using the geometry of the associated symmetric spaces and the combinatorics of the groups, we find a general criterion for when discrete and faithful representations exist, and…

The theory of geometric zeta functions for locally symmetric spaces as initialized by Selberg and continued by numerous mathematicians is generalized to the case of higher rank spaces. We show analytic continuation, describe the divisor in terms of tangential cohomology and in terms of group cohomology which generalize…

We show that every limit point of a Zariski dense discrete subgroup $Γ$ of the isometry group of a symmetric space of noncompact type is conical if and only if $Γ$ is convex cocompact.

We prove that given a Hitchin representation in a real split rank 2 group $\mathsf G_0$, there exists a unique equivariant minimal surface in the corresponding symmetric space. As a corollary, we obtain a parametrization of the Hitchin components by a Hermitian bundle over Teichmüller space. The proof goes through intr…

Higher index theorem for Dirac operators on finite-volume spaces.

We generalize the natural cross ratio on the ideal boundary of a rank one symmetric spaces, or even $\mathrm{CAT}(-1)$ space, to higher rank symmetric spaces and (non-locally compact) Euclidean buildings - we obtain vector valued cross ratios defined on simplices of the building at infinity. We show several properties …

On manifolds with an even Riemannian conformally compact Einstein metric, the resolvent of the Lichnerowicz Laplacian, acting on trace-free, divergence-free, symmetric 2-tensors is shown to have a meromorphic continuation to the complex plane, defining quantum resonances of this Laplacian. For higher rank symmetric ten…

We construct series of examples of exotic smooth structures on compact locally symmetric spaces of noncompact type. In particular, we obtain higher rank examples, which do not support Riemannian metric of nonpositive curvature. The examples are obtained by taking the connected sum with an exotic sphere. To detect the c…

Let $X$ be a globally symmetric space of noncompact type, and $Γ\subset\Isom(X)$ a Schottky group of axial isometries. Then $M:=X/Γ$ is a locally symmetric Riemannian manifold of infinite volume. The goal of this note is to give an asymptotic estimate for the number of primitive closed geodesics in $M$ modulo free homo…

In this paper we study a homological version of the higher-dimensional divergence invariants defined by Brady and Farb. We show that they are quasi-isometry invariants in the class of proper cocompact Hadamard spaces in the sense of Alexandrov and that they can moreover be used to detect the Euclidean rank of such spac…

Paper explores coarse embeddings between symmetric spaces and Euclidean buildings, answering open questions.

Let $X=G/H$ be a symmetric space for a real simple Lie group $G$, equipped with a $G$-invariant complex structure. Then, $X$ is a pseudo-Hermitian manifold, and in this geometric setting, higher Laplacians $L_m$ are defined for each positive integer $m$, which generalize the ordinary Laplace-Beltrami operator. We show …

New rigidity result for CAT(0) spaces of higher rank.

A prime geodesic theorem for singular geodesics in a locally symmetric space is proved. As an application, an asymptotic formula for units in number fields is given.

This survey is based on a series of lectures that we gave at MSRI in Spring 2015 and on a series of papers, mostly written jointly with Joan Porti. Our goal here is to: 1. Describe a class of discrete subgroups $Γ<G$ of higher rank semisimple Lie groups, which exhibit some "rank 1 behavior". 2. Give different character…

The paper proves that certain spaces have injective balls of any radius.

We study isometric actions on Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type which are induced by reductive algebraic subgroups of the isometry group. We show that for such an action there exists a corresponding isometric action on a dual compact symmetric space, which reflects many properties of the original action. F…

Develops complex harmonic maps for Teichmüller theory, proving new theorems.

We say that a Riemannian manifold M has rank at least k if every geodesic in M admits at least k parallel Jacobi fields. The Rank Rigidity Theorem of Ballmann and Burns-Spatzier, later generalized by Eberlein-Heber, states that a complete, irreducible, simply connected Riemannian manifold M of rank at least 2 (the high…

Anosov representations of word hyperbolic groups into higher-rank semisimple Lie groups are representations with finite kernel and discrete image that have strong analogies with convex cocompact representations into rank-one Lie groups. However, the most naive analogy fails: generically, Anosov representations do not a…