Ergodic Theorems for Laminations and Foliations: Recent Results and Perspectives

Abstract

This report discusses recent results as well as new perspectives in the ergodic theory for Riemann surface laminations, with an emphasis on singular holomorphic foliations by curves. The central notions of these developments are leafwise Poincaré metric, directed positive harmonic currents, multiplicative cocycles, and Lyapunov exponents. We deal with various ergodic theorems for such laminations: random and operator ergodic theorems, (geometric) Birkhoff ergodic theorems, Oseledec multiplicative ergodic theorem, and unique ergodicity theorems. Applications of these theorems are also given. In particular, we define and study the canonical Lyapunov exponents for a large family of singular holomorphic foliations on compact projective surfaces. Topological and algebro-geometric interpretations of these characteristic numbers are also treated. These results highlight the strong similarity as well as the fundamental differences between the ergodic theory of maps and that of Riemann surface laminations. Most of the results reported here are known. However, sufficient conditions for abstract heat diffusions to coincide with the leafwise heat diffusions (Section 5.2) are new ones.