Visible Measures along $\Omega(n)$ and Distribution of Horocycle Orbits

Abstract

Let $\Omega(n)$ denote the number of prime factors of $n$, counted with multiplicities. We study the set $Acc^\Omega(x)$ of weak-$^*$ limits of the sequence $\frac{1}{N}\sum_{n\leq N}\delta_{T^{\Omega(n)}x}$ in $\sigma$-compact dynamical systems $ (X,T)$, demonstrating that if $x \in X$ is quasi-generic for an ergodic measure $\mu$, then $\mu \in Acc^\Omega(x)$. This extends a result of Bergelson and Richter, who studied the problem in the setting of uniquely ergodic systems. We give a more precise description of the set $Acc^\Omega(x)$ in the case of the horocycle flow on non-compact quotients of $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$. We show that for every non-periodic $x\in X$, in addition to Haar measure, there exists sequences $(s_n), (c_n) \subseteq \mathbb{R}$ such that $$ \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}e^{-\frac{r^2}{2}}\nu^{i}_{s_n-2\log|1+c_nr|} dr\in Acc^{\Omega}(x), $$ where $\{ \nu^{i}_{s} \}_{i \leq k}$ denotes the one parameter family of periodic measures in each of the $k$ inequivalent cusps. Depending on Diophantine properties of the non-periodic point $x$, we show that $Acc^\Omega(x)$ contains a full two parameter family of such periodic measures, as well as the Dirac measure at each cusp. In particular, these results yield almost-everywhere divergence of pointwise averages along $\Omega(n)$ for the non-compact horocycle flow.