• Archana Receives the Donna B. Hamilton Award

    Archana Khurana has been selected to receive the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in a General Education Course.  Awards are based solely on student nominations and are solicited from across campus.  From the many nominations received, the selection committee was very impressed by the student experience… Read More

  • Yanir Receives a Do Good Campus Fund Grant

    Yanir’s proposal on “Incorporating outreach into the curriculum via experiential learning” is one of the only 27 projects out of 140 submissions that were funded by the UMD Do Good Campus Fund. Read More

  • Congrats to 3 CMNS Students Named Goldwater Scholars

    Congratulations to UMD’s 3 Goldwater Scholars this year, all from CMNS: Junior physics and mathematics double-degree student Yash Anand Sophomore atmospheric and oceanic science and physics double-degree student Malcolm Maas Junior biological sciences and mathematics double-degree student Jerry Shen Over the last 15 years, UMD’s nominations yielded 49 scholarships—No. 2… Read More

  • Maria Cameron Receives the 2024 MURI Award

    Congratulations to Maria Cameron for her MURI award. MURI are multidisciplinary university research initiative grants that are awarded by the department of defense. Cameron’s grant is sponsored by the office of naval research. Her team includes Balakumar Balachandran (ME) and Miao Yu (ME). This is a project on “disorder-influenced collective… Read More

  • A $27.2M Gift to the Math Department by the Brin Family

    The university announced today a big gift to the Math Department. The very generous gift of $27.2M was made by Michael & Eugenia Brin. The gift will endow the Brin Mathematics Research Center, establish an endowed chair, and launch a summer camp for high school students. The official university’s press… Read More
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This workshop is cosponsored by the dynamical systems groups at Maryland and Penn State, and has been held twice each year, beginning in Fall 1991. The Fall meetings are held at Penn State and the Spring meetings are held at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Maryland, College Park. Our spring meetings have been partially supported by the National Science Foundation from their beginning in 1992 through the present.

Links to previous conference programs and upcoming conference:

Fernando Argentieri
Title: Reduciblity without KAM
Abstract: We prove reducibility results for close to constant 1-frequency quasi-periodic matrix valued cocycles in finite and smooth regularity without the use of a quadratic scheme. Reducibility results to rotations matrices are obtained regardless of the arithmetics of the irrational base frequency.
 
David Aulicino
Title: The Forni Subspace: A Survey of Recent Results
Abstract: The Forni subspace, defined by Avila-Eskin-Moeller (in the context of translation surfaces), is a mechanism for producing Lyapunov exponents equal to zero in the Kontsevich-Zorich cocycle.  In this talk we will introduce the basic objects and survey various classification results.  We will explain some of the techniques and highlight possible future directions.  This will include joint work with Frederik Benirschke and Chaya Norton.
 
Polina Baron
Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA
 
Jairo Bochi
Title: Exotic Lyapunov Exponents.
Abstract: We construct two examples of continuous SL(2,R)-cocycles over hyperbolic dynamics whose Lyapunov spectra are "exotic". In the first example, the (top) Lyapunov exponent is the same positive number for all invariant (probability) measures, but nevertheless the cocycle is not uniformly hyperbolic. In the second example, there exists a unique invariant measure whose Lyapunov exponent is far from zero. Each construction starts with the selection of an appropriate non-uniformly hyperbolic cocycle over a uniquely ergodic base, and then proceeds with a careful extension of this cocycle. The resulting moduli of continuity are "bad"; in fact, such examples can never be Holder-continuous.
 
Kavita Dhanda
Title: Accumulation points of normalized approximations.
Abstract: Building on classical aspects of the theory of Diophantine approximation, we consider the collection of all accumulation points of normalized integer vector translates of points qα,  with α in R^d and q an integer. First we derive measure theoretic and Hausdorff dimension results about the set of α whose accumulation points are all of R^d. Then we focus primarily on the case when the coordinates of α together with 1 form a basis for an algebraic number field K. Here we show that, under the correct normalization, the set of accumulation points displays an ordered geometric structure which reflects algebraic properties of the underlying number field. For example, when d = 2, this collection of accumulation points can be described as a countable union of dilates of a single ellipse, or of a pair of hyperbolas, depending on whether or not K has a non-trivial embedding into the complex numbers.
 
Caleb Dilsavor
Title: Thermodynamic formalism for non-compact locally CAT(-1) geodesic flows via Patterson-Sullivan measures.
Abstract:  On the geodesic flow of a manifold of pinched negative curvature, there is a geometric construction of equilibrium states for Holder potentials which has been thoroughly developed by the well-known work of Paulin, Pollicott, and Schapira. For the geodesic flow of a proper locally CAT(-1) space, the construction was not as clear due to discrepancies arising from non-uniqueness of extensions of geodesic segments. I will talk about joint work with Daniel Thompson showing how to use ideas from coarse hyperbolicity to handle these discrepancies in the construction, and how to still prove that the measure is the unique equilibrium state if it is finite. Our technique works for any bounded potential satisfying the Bowen property.
 
Bassam Fayad
Title: Non tame cocycle rigidity above affine unipotent abelian actions on the torus.
Abstract: Cocycle rigidity with tame solutions is a crucial ingredient in KAM theory.  We are interested in cocycle rigidity above affine unipotent abelian actions on the torus with Diophantine translation data. We consider  unlocked actions whose rank one factors are non vanishing translations (the locked actions do not have any kind of stability). 
It follows from Katok and Robinson's observations that when one generator of the action is of step less or equal to 2 then cocycle rigidity with tame solutions holds. Moreover,  Damjanovic, Fayad and Saprykina
 proved that in this case almost cocycles also have almost solutions (with a low regularity control on the error), and from there concluded  KAM-rigidity of these actions. 
  In a joint work with S. Durham, we find examples of affine Z^2-actions on the torus above which smooth cocycle rigidity holds but is not tame. 
The linear part of the action is generated by unipotent matrices of step 3. Our examples show that KAM-rigidity for higher rank actions by affine unipotent toral actions does not hold in general when no element of the actions is of step less or equal to 2.
 
Simion Filip
Title: Finiteness of totally geodesic hypersurfaces in variable negative curvature.
Abstract:  I will explain a proof of the fact that a compact manifold with a real-analytic negatively curved metric admits only finitely many totally geodesic hypersurfaces, unless it is an arithmetic hyperbolic manifold. I will provide some context, via analogous rigidity results in Teichmuller dynamics, as well as the case of homogeneous spaces. Joint work with David Fisher and Ben Lowe.
 
William Goldman
Title: Dynamics on character varieties.
Abstract: The classification of geometric structures on manifolds naturally leads to actions of mapping class groups on deformation spaces of flat bundles over surfaces. In joint work with Forni, these actions are suspended to give extensions of the Teichmuller flow.  This talk will survey the evolution of these ideas and report on some recent joint with Forni, Lawton and Matheus when the structure group is compact. If time permits I will speak on a program to analyze an action of the modular group on the variant of the Markoff surface x^2 + y^2 + z^2 - x y z = 20 where the dynamics bifurcates between ergodic (level < 20) and not ergodic (level > 20). 
 
Svetlana Katok
Title: Reduction theory for Fuchsian groups with cusps.
Abstract: For any Fuchsian group of the first kind with at least one cusp and possibly with elliptic points, we construct a fundamental polygon such that the two-dimensional natural extension, a.k.a. reduction map, of the Bowen–Series-like map acting on the boundary of the upper half-plane in a piecewise manner by generators of the group, has a domain of bijectivity (and global attractor) with simple and finite rectangular structure. The fundamental polygon is related to the free product structure of the group, and its deformation in the Teichmüller space preserves the combinatorial structure and the marking. This answers a question posed by Don Zagier. (Joint project with I.Ugarcovici and A.Abrams).
 
Dongryul Kim
Title: Patterson-Sullivan measures of Anosov groups are Hausdorff measures
Abstract: In the theory of Kleinian groups, Sullivan's classical theorem establishes the correspondence between Patterson-Sullivan measures and Hausdorff measures on the limit sets of convex cocompact Kleinian groups. This connection provides a geometric understanding of Patterson-Sullivan measures in terms of the internal metric on limit sets. Recent advancements in the theory of discrete subgroups of higher rank Lie groups have brought Anosov subgroups into focus as a natural extension of convex cocompact Kleinian groups. This raises an intriguing question: under what conditions do Patterson-Sullivan measures of Anosov subgroups emerge as Hausdorff measures on limit sets with appropriate metrics?
For all Zarski dense Anosov subgroups, we give a definitive answer to this question by showing that their limit sets are Ahlfors regular for intrinsic conformal premetrics, and  that a Patterson-Sullivan measure is equal to the Hausdorff measure if and only if the associated linear form is symmetric. This is the joint work with Subhadip Dey and Hee Oh.
 
Axel Kodat
Title: An average intersection estimate for families of diffeomorphisms
Abstract: Poincaré’s formula in integral geometry states that for any submanifolds of V, W of a compact homogeneous space M = G/H with G acting transitively on tangent subspaces, the average volume of the intersection between g(V) and W is equal to Cvol(V)vol(W) for C a constant depending only on the dimensions of V and W. We discuss an adaptation of this result to general (non-homogeneous) closed manifolds, where the transformation group G is replaced by a compact family of diffeomorphisms, and the formula now holds up to uniform multiplicative error. We then sketch some applications of this result to the dynamics of C^1 diffeomorphisms with exponential volume growth. This is joint work with Mike Shub. 
 
Willie Rush Lim
Title: Critical quasicircle maps
Abstract: There is an essentially complete renormalization theory for analytic critical circle maps which serves to justify the golden mean universality and other conjectures by physicists. In this talk, we will introduce a generalization called "critical quasicircle maps", i.e. analytic self homeomorphisms of a quasicircle with a single critical point. We will sketch the realization of such maps with prescribed combinatorics, and then discuss the state of the art renormalization picture together with its implications on rigidity, universality, and conjugacy classes.
 
Katy Loyd
Title: Ergodic averages along \Omega(n).
Abstract: Following Birkhoff's proof of the Pointwise Ergodic Theorem, it is natural to consider whether convergence still holds along various subsequences. In 2020, Bergelson and Richter showed that in uniquely ergodic systems, pointwise convergence holds along the number theoretic sequence \Omega(n), where \Omega(n) counts the number of prime factors of n with multiplicities. In this talk, we will see that by removing this assumption, a pointwise ergodic theorem does not hold along \Omega(n). In fact, \Omega(n) satisfies a rather strong non-convergence property. We will further classify the strength of this non-convergence behavior by considering weaker notions of averaging (based on current joint work with S. Mondal).

 

Daniel Mitsutani 
Title: Hidden Symmetry Rigidity of Geodesic Flows
Abstract: An old result of Bochner proves that closed Riemannian manifolds of negative Ricci curvature admit only finitely many isometries. On the other hand, work beginning with Eberlein, and later extended by Farb and Weinberger, shows that rigidity in the presence of too many isometries still occurs provided one looks at covers of a closed manifold of negative sectional curvature to find “hidden symmetries”: Eberlein proves that a closed Riemannian manifold of negative sectional curvatures admitting infinitely many isometries of its universal cover must be locally symmetric.
From the dynamical perspective, hyperbolic dynamical systems also display such a phenomenon: if the centralizer group of a hyperbolic dynamical system is too large often it is conjugate to an algebraic one. In this talk we will consider hidden symmetries of the hyperbolic dynamical system given by the geodesic flow of a manifold of negative sectional curvatures. We will introduce an appropriate notion of a centralizer for the geodesic flow on the universal cover, and prove that when it is not discrete the metric must be locally symmetric.
 
 
Grigorii Monakov
Title: Non-stationary Ito-Kawada and Ergodic Theorems for random isometries.
Abstract: I will consider a nonstationary sequence of independent random isometries of a compact metrizable space. Assuming that there are no proper closed subsets with deterministic images I establish a weak-* convergence to the unique invariant under isometries measure, Ergodic Theorem and Large Deviation Type Estimate. I also show that all the results can be carried over to the case of a random walk on a compact metrizable group. In particular, I prove a nonstationary analog of classical Ito-Kawada theorem and give a new alternative proof for the stationary case.
 
Bruno Nussenzveig
Title: Automorphic measures for critical circle maps.
Abstract: Let f be a C^2 circle diffeomorphism with irrational rotation number. As established by Douady and Yoccoz in the eighties, for any given s > 0 there exists a unique  automorphic measure of exponent s for f. In this talk, we shall discuss the proof that the same holds when f is a minimal critical circle map. We shall also briefly discuss two applications of this result. The first one is that these maps admit no invariant distributions of order 1 independent of the unique invariant measure. The second one is an improvement of the Denjoy-Koksma inequality for absolutely continuous observables.
 
Hee Oh
Title:  Rigidity of Kleinian groups.
 Abstract: Discrete subgroups of PSL(2,C) are called Kleinian groups. After briefly reviewing the Mostow-Sullivan rigidity theorem, we will discuss new rigidity results for  Kleinian groups which we obtain using the dynamics of one parameter diagonal flows on higher rank homogeneous spaces of infinite volume. (This talk is based on joint work with Dongryul Kim).
 
Enrique Pujals
Title: Renormalization of dissipative  diffeos of the disk
Abstract: It has been proven that any Henon map (with Jacobian smaller than 1/4) lying on the boundary of diffeomorphisms with zero entropy is infinitely renormalizable. Aiming to tackle the converse problem, the talk will discuss how to develop a non-perturbative renormalization theory for two-dimensional diffeomorphisms.
 
James Reber
Title: A counterexample to a marked length spectrum semi-rigidity problem.
Abstract: Given a negatively curved surface (M,g), I'll discuss how to construct a perturbation (M,g') such that each closed geodesic becomes longer, and yet there is no diffeomorphism which contracts every tangent vector. This is joint work with Andrey Gogolev.
 
Carlos Matheus Santos
Title: Non-conical strictly convex divisible sets are maximally anisotropic\\
Abstract: Let U be a non-conical strictly convex divisible set. Even though the boundary S of U is not C^2, Benoist showed that S is C^{1+} and Crampon established that S has a sort of anisotropic Holder regularity -- described by a list L of real numbers - at almost all of its points. In this talk, we discuss our joint work with  P. Foulon and P. Hubert showing that S is maximally anisotropic (in the sense that the list L contains no repetitions) thanks to the features of the Hilbert flow. 
 
Omri Sarig
Title: Robustness of the measure of maximal entropy for smooth surface diffeomorphisms.
Abstract: Let f be a topologically transitive C-infinity surface diffeomorphism with positive topological entropy. Let m be the (unique) measure of maximal entropy. We show that for any invariant measure m' whose entropy is epsilon away from the maximal entropy,
(1) |m(h)-m'(h)|=O(\sqrt{\epsilon}) for all Holder functions h with unit Holder norm
(2) the Lyapunov exponents of m’ are O(\sqrt{\epsilon}) away from those of m
(3) the Oseledets splitting of m’ is O(\sqrt{\epsilon}) away from that of m’ (in a sense that will be made precise in the talk).
The case of Anosov diffeomorphisms is due to Kadyrov; the novelty of our work is that we do not need the Anosov assumption. (Joint with Jerome Buzzi and Sylvain Crovisier)
 
Rodrigo Trevino
Title: How to do it on Cantor sets.
Abstract: I will talk about some recent results about minimal Cantor systems.
 
Zhenqi Wang
Title: Global smooth rigidity for toral automorphisms 
Abstract: Suppose  f is a diffeomorphism  on torus  whose linearization A  is weakly irreducible.  Let 
H be a conjugacy between f and A. We prove the following: 1. if A is hyperbolic and H is weakly differentiable 
2. if A is partially hyperbolic and H is C^{1+holder}.  Then H is C-infty.  Our result shows that 
the conjugacy in all local and global rigidity results for irreducible A  is C-\infty. This is a joint work with 
B.  Kalinin and V Sadovskaya.   
 
 
 
 

 Spring 2024 Maryland-Penn State Semiannual Workshop on Dynamical Systems and Related Topics

SCHEDULE

Thursday, April 4

2:00 -- 2:50  Enrique Pujals

3pm -- 3:50  David Aulicino

4pm -- 4:30 Parallel Session I: (Willie Lim/ Kavita Dhanda)

4:30 -- 5:00 Parallel Session II: (Caleb Dilsavor/ Axel Kodat)

 

Friday, April 5

8:30 -- 9:00 Breakfast

9 -- 9:50 Svetlana Katok

10:00 -- 10:30  Coffee Break

10:30 -- 11:20  Simion Filip

11:30 -- 12:20 Rodrigo Trevino

12:30 -- 2:00  Lunch break

2 -- 2:30 Parallel Session III (Grigorii Monakov/ Katy Loyd)

2:30 -- 3pm  Parallel Session IV  (Bruno Nussenzveig/Polina Baron)

3:10 -- 4:00  William Goldman

4:10 -- 4:40 Coffee Break

4:40 -- 5:30 Carlos Matheus Santos

6 -- .  Banquet in the Rotunda

 

Saturday, April 6

8:30 -- 9   Breakfast

9 -- 9:50   Jairo Bochi

10 -- 10:30 Coffee Break

10:30 -- 11:20  Zhenqi Wang

11:30 -- 12:20  Hee Oh

12:20 -- 2:00  Lunch break

2 -- 5  BRIN PRIZE Session

 

Sunday, April 7

8:30 -- 9   Breakfast

9 -- 9:50   Omri Sarig

10 -- 10:30  Coffee Break

10:30 -- 11:00  Parallel Session V (Dongryul Kim/James Reber)

11:00 -- 11:30 Parallel Session VI (Daniel Mitsutani/Fernando Argentieri)

11:40 -- 12:30  Bassam Fayad

 

Beginning in Fall 1991, the dynamics groups of the University of Maryland and Pennsylvania State University have jointly sponsored two annual three to four day meetings in dynamical systems and related topics: a spring meeting here in College Park, and a fall meeting in State College. These meetings, though primarily regional, also attract participants outside the region and the country; the conference archives indicate their scope.

 

This year the conference will celebrate Giovanni Forni's 60th birthday.

The 13th Michael Brin prize in dynamical systems will be awarded Saturday April 6, 2024.

Confirmed speakers:

  • David Aulicino (Brooklyn College)
  • Jairo Bochi (Penn State)
  • Bassam Fayad (UMD)
  • Simion Filip (UChicago)
  • William Goldman (UMD)
  • Svetlana Katok (Penn State)
  • Omri Sarig (Weizmann)
  • Carlos Matheus (Ecole Polytechnique)
  • Hee Oh (Yale)
  • Enrique Pujals (CUNY)
  • Rodrigo Trevino (UMD)
  • Corinna Ulcigrai* (UZH)
  • Zhenqi Wang (Michigan State)
  1. Dynamics at Maryland

Subcategories

2015 Dynamics Conference

2022 Dynamics Conference

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