This preprint was accepted November 4, 2002
Contact:
M. Gordin
ABSTRACT: We introduce a new method of proving Poisson limit laws in the theory of dynamical systems, which is based on the Chen-Stein method (\cite{7, 20}) combined with the analysis of the homoclinic Laplace operator in \cite{11} and some other homoclinic considerations. This is accomplished for hyperbolic toral automorphism $T$ and the normalized Haar measure $P$. Let $(G_n)_{n \ge 0}$ be a sequence of measurable sets with no periodic points among its accumulation points and such that $P(G_n) \to 0$ as $n \to \infty,$ and let $(s(n))_{n > 0}$ be a sequence of positive integers such that $\lim_{n\to \infty} s(n)P(G_n)=\lambda$ for some $\lambda>0$. Then, under some additional assumptions about $(G_n)_{n \ge 0}$, we prove that for every integer $k \ge 0$ $$P(\sum_{i=1}^{s(n)} 1_{G_n}\circ T^{i-1} = k) \to \lambda^k \exp { (- \lambda)} /k! $$ as $n \to \infty$ Of independent iterest is an upper mixing-type estimate which is one of our main tools.[Full text: (.ps.gz)]