apollonian circle packings: dynamics and · apollonian packings 3 2 2 3 15 6 6 3 2 2 3 38 38 35 23...
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APOLLONIAN CIRCLE PACKINGS: DYNAMICS AND
NUMBER THEORY
HEE OH
Abstract. We give an overview of various counting problems for Apol-lonian circle packings, which turn out to be related to problems in dy-namics and number theory for thin groups. This survey article is anexpanded version of my lecture notes prepared for the 13th Takagi lec-tures given at RIMS, Kyoto in the fall of 2013.
Contents
1. Counting problems for Apollonian circle packings 12. Hidden symmetries and Orbital counting problem 73. Counting, Mixing, and the Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure 94. Integral Apollonian circle packings 155. Expanders and Sieve 19References 25
1. Counting problems for Apollonian circle packings
An Apollonian circle packing is one of the most of beautiful circle packingswhose construction can be described in a very simple manner based on anold theorem of Apollonius of Perga:
Theorem 1.1 (Apollonius of Perga, 262-190 BC). Given 3 mutually tangentcircles in the plane, there exist exactly two circles tangent to all three.
Figure 1. Pictorial proof of the Apollonius theorem
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Figure 2. Possible configurations of four mutually tangent circles
Proof. We give a modern proof, using the linear fractional transformationsof PSL2(C) on the extended complex plane C = C∪∞, known as Mobiustransformations: (
a bc d
)(z) =
az + b
cz + d,
where a, b, c, d ∈ C with ad− bc = 1 and z ∈ C ∪ ∞. As is well known, a
Mobius transformation maps circles in C to circles in C, preserving anglesbetween them. (In the whole article, a line in C is treated as a circle in C).In particular, it maps tangent circles to tangent circles.
For given three mutually tangent circles C1, C2, C3 in the plane, denote byp the tangent point between C1 and C2, and let g ∈ PSL2(C) be an elementwhich maps p to ∞. Then g maps C1 and C2 to two circles tangent at ∞,that is, two parallel lines, and g(C3) is a circle tangent to these parallel lines.In the configuration of g(C1), g(C2), g(C3) (see Fig. 1), it is clear that thereare precisely two circles, say, D and D′ tangent to all three g(Ci), 1 ≤ i ≤ 3.Using g−1, which is again a Mobius transformation, it follows that g−1(D)and g−1(D′) are precisely those two circles tangent to C1,C2,C3.
In order to construct an Apollonian circle packing, we begin with fourmutually tangent circles in the plane (see Figure 2 for possible configura-tions) and keep adding newer circles tangent to three of the previous circlesprovided by Theorem 1.1. Continuing this process indefinitely, we arrive atan infinite circle packing, called an Apollonian circle packing.
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 3
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41Figure 4. Unbounded Apollonian circle packing
Figure 3 shows the first few generations of this process, where each cir-cle is labeled with its curvature (= the reciprocal of its radius) with thenormalization that the greatest circle has radius one.
If we had started with a configuration containing two parallel lines, wewould have arrived at an unbounded Apollonian circle packing as in Figure4. There are also other unbounded Apollonian packings containing eitheronly one line or no line at all; but it will be hard to draw them in a paper withfinite size, as circles will get enormously large only after a few generations.
For a bounded Apollonian packing P, there are only finitely many circlesof radius bigger than a given number. Hence the following counting functionis well-defined for any T > 0:
NP(T ) := #C ∈ P : curv(C) ≤ T.
Question 1.2. • Is there an asymptotic formula of NP(T ) as T →∞?• If so, can we compute?
The study of this question involves notions related to metric propertiesof the underlying fractal set called a residual set:
Res(P) := ∪C∈PC,
i.e., the residual set of P is the closure in C of the union of all circles in P.The Hausdorff dimension of the residual set of P is called the residual
dimension of P, which we denote by α. The notion of the Hausdorff dimen-sion was first given by Hausdorff in 1918. To explain its definition, we firstrecall the notion of the Hausdorff measure (cf. [36]):
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Definition 1.3. Let s ≥ 0 and F be any subset of Rn. The s-dimensionalHausdorff measure of F is defined by
Hs(F ) := limε→0
(inf
∑d(Bi)
s : F ⊂ ∪iBi, d(Bi) < ε)
where d(Bi) is the diameter of Bi.
For s = n, it is the usual Lebesgue measure of Rn, up to a constantmultiple. It can be shown that as s increases, the s-dimensional Hausdorffmeasure of F will be ∞ up to a certain value and then jumps down to 0.The Hausdorff dimension of F is this critical value of s:
dimH(F ) = sups : Hs(F ) =∞ = infs : Hs(F ) = 0.In fractal geometry, there are other notions of dimensions which often have
different values. But for the residual set of an Apollonian circle packing, theHausdorff dimension, the packing dimension and the box dimension are allequal to each other [55].
We observe
• 1 ≤ α ≤ 2.• α is independent of P: any two Apollonian packings are equivalent
to each other by a Mobius transformation which maps three tangentpoints of one packing to three tangent points of the other packing.• The precise value of α is unknown, but approximately, α = 1.30568(8)
due to McMullen [37].
In particular, Res(P) is much bigger than a countable union of circles (asα > 1), but not too big in the sense that its Lebesgue area is zero (as α < 2).
The first counting result for Apollonian packings is due to Boyd in 1982[7]:
Theorem 1.4 (Boyd).
limT→∞
logNP(T )
log T= α.
Boyd asked in [7] whether NP(T ) ∼ c · Tα as T →∞, and wrote that hisnumerical experiments suggest this may be false and perhaps
NP(T ) ∼ c · Tα(log T )β
might be more appropriate.However it turns out that there is no extra logarithmic term:
Theorem 1.5 (Kontorovich-O. [30]). For a bounded Apollonian packing P,there exists a constant cP > 0 such that
NP(T ) ∼ cP · Tα as T →∞.
Theorem 1.6 (Lee-O. [32]). There exists η > 0 such that for any boundedApollonian packing P,
NP(T ) = cP · Tα +O(Tα−η).
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 5
Vinogradov [58] has also independently obtained Theorem 1.6 with aweaker error term.
For an unbounded Apollonian packing P, we have NP(T ) =∞ in general;however we can modify our counting question so that we count only thosecircles contained in a fixed curvilinear triangle R whose sides are given bythree mutually tangent circles.
SettingNR(T ) := #C ∈ R : curv(C) ≤ T <∞,
we have shown:
Theorem 1.7 (O.-Shah [45]). For a curvilinear triangle R of any Apollo-nian packing P, there exists a constant cR > 0 such that
NR(T ) ∼ cR · Tα as T →∞.
Going even further, we may ask if we can describe the asymptotic distri-bution of circles in P of curvature at most T as T →∞. To formulate thisquestion precisely, for any bounded region E ⊂ C, we set
NP(T,E) := #C ∈ P : C ∩ E 6= ∅, curv(C) ≤ T.Then the question on the asymptotic distribution of circles in P amounts
to searching for a locally finite Borel measure ωP on the plane C satisfyingthat
limT→∞
NT (P, E)
Tα= ωP(E)
for any bounded Borel subset E ⊂ C with negligible boundary.Noting that all the circles in P lie on the residual set of P, any Borel mea-
sure describing the asymptotic distribution of circles of P must be supportedon Res(P).
Theorem 1.8 (O.-Shah [45]). For any bounded Borel E ⊂ C with smoothboundary,
NP(T,E) ∼ cA · HαP(E) · Tα as T →∞where HαP denotes the α-dimensional Hausdorff measure of the set Res(P)and 0 < cA <∞ is a constant independent of P.
In general, dimH(F ) = s does not mean that the s-dimensional Hausdorffmeasure Hs(F ) is non-trivial (it could be 0 or ∞). But on the residualset Res(P) of an Apollonian packing, HαP is known to be locally finite and
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Figure 5. Dual circles
its support is precisely Res(P) by Sullivan [57]; hence HαP(E) < ∞ for Ebounded and 0 < HαP(E) if E ∩ Res(P) 6= ∅.
Though the Hausdorff dimension and the packing dimension are equalto each other for Res(P), the packing measure is locally infinite ([57], [39])which indicates that the metric properties of Res(P) are subtle.
Theorem 1.8 says that circles in an Apollonian packing P are uniformlydistributed with respect to the α-dimensional Hausdorff measure on Res(P):for any bounded Borel subsets E1, E2 ⊂ C with smooth boundaries and withE2 ∩ Res(P) 6= ∅,
limT→∞
NP(T,E1)
NP(T,E2)=HαP(E1)
HαP(E2).
Apollonian constant. Observe that the constant cA in Theorem 1.8 isgiven by
cA = limT→∞
NP(T,E)
Tα · HαP(E)
for any Apollonian circle packing P and any E with E ∩ Res(P) 6= ∅. Inparticular,
cA = limT→∞
NP(T )
Tα · HαP(Res(P))
for any bounded Apollonian circle packing P.
Definition 1.9. We propose to call 0 < cA <∞ the Apollonian constant.
Problem 1.10. What is cA? (even approximation?)
Whereas all other terms in the asymptotic formula of Theorem 1.7 canbe described using the metric notions of Euclidean plane, our exact formulaof cA involves certain singular measures of an infinite-volume hyperbolic 3manifold, indicating the intricacy of the precise counting problem.
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 7
2. Hidden symmetries and Orbital counting problem
Hidden symmetries. The key to our approach of counting circles in anApollonian packing lies in the fact that
An Apollonian circle packing has lots of hidden symmetries.
Explaining these hidden symmetries will lead us to explain the relevance ofthe packing with a Kleinian group, called the (geometric) Apollonian group.
Fix 4 mutually tangent circles C1, C2, C3, C4 in P and consider their dualcircles C1, · · · , C4, that is, Ci is the unique circle passing through the threetangent points among Cj ’s for j 6= i. In Figure 5, the solid circles representCi’s and the dotted circles are their dual circles. Observe that invertingwith respect to a dual circle preserves the three circles that it meets perpen-dicularly and interchanges the two circles which are tangent to those threecircles.
Definition 2.1. The inversion with respect to a circle of radius r centered at
a maps x to a+ r2
|x−a|2 (x− a). The group Mob(C) of Mobis transformations
in C is generated by inversions with respect to all circles in C.
The geometric Apollonian group A := AP associated to P is generatedby the four inversions with respect to the dual circles:
A = 〈τ1, τ2, τ3, τ4〉 < Mob(C)
where τi denotes the inversion with respect to Ci. Note that PSL2(C) is a
subgroup of Mob(C) of index two; we will write Mob(C) = PSL2(C)±. TheApollonian groupA is a Kleinian group (= a discrete subgroup of PSL2(C)±)and satisfies
• P = ∪4i=1A(Ci), that is, inverting the initial four circles in P with
respect to their dual circles generates the whole packing P;• Res(P) = Λ(A) where Λ(A) denotes the limit set of A, which is the
set of all accumulation points of an orbit A(z) for z ∈ C.
In order to explain how the hyperbolic geometry comes into the picture,it is most convenient to use the upper-half space model for hyperbolic 3
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Figure 6. Whitehead Link
space H3: H3 = (x1, x2, y) : y > 0. The hyperbolic metric is given
by ds =
√dx21+dx22+dy2
y and the geometric boundary ∂∞(H3) is naturally
identified with C. Totally geodesic subspaces in H3 are vertical lines, verticalcircles, vertical planes, and vertical hemispheres.
The Poincare extension theorem gives an identification Mob(C) with the
isometry group Isom(H3). Since Mob(C) is generated by inversions with
respect to circles in C, the Poincare extension theorem is determined bythe correspondence which assigns to an inversion with respect to a circle Cin C the inversion with respect to the vertical hemisphere in H3 above C.An inversion with respect to a vertical hemisphere preserves the upper halfspace, as well as the hyperbolic metric, and hence gives rise to an isometryof H3.
The Apollonian group A = AP , now considered as a discrete subgroupof Isom(H3), has a fundamental domain in H3, given by the exterior of thehemispheres above the dual circles to P. In particular, A\H3 is an infinitevolume hyperbolic 3-manifold and has a fundamental domain with finitelymany sides; such a manifold is called a geometrically finite manifold.
Connection with the Whitehead link. The Apollonian manifold A\H3
can also be constructed from the Whitehead link complement. To explainthe connection, consider the group, say, A∗ generated by 8 inversions withrespect to four mutually tangent circles as well as their four dual circles.Then the group A∗ has a regular ideal hyperbolic octahedron as a funda-mental domain in H3, and is commensurable to the Picard group PSL2(Z[i]),up to a conjugation, which is a lattice in PSL2(C). The quotient orbifoldA∗\H3 is commensurable to the Whitehead link complement S3 −W (seeFigure 6). In this finite volume 3-manifold S3 −W , we have a triply punc-tured sphere (corresponding a disk in S3 spanning one component of Wand pierced twice by the other component), which is totally geodesic andwhose fundamental group is conjugate to the congruence subgroup Γ(2) of
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 9
PSL2(Z) of level 2. If we cut the manifold S3 −W open along this totallygeodesic surface Γ(2)\H2, we get a finite volume hyperbolic manifold withtotally geodesic boundary, whose fundamental group is the Apollonian groupA. We thank Curt McMullen for bringing this beautiful relation with theWhitehead link to our attention.
Orbital counting problem in PSL2(R)\PSL2(C). Observe that the num-ber of circles in an Apollonian packing P of curvature at most T is sameas the number of the vertical hemispheres above circles in P of Euclideanheight at least T−1. Moreover for a fixed bounded region E in C, NP(T,E)is same as the number of the vertical hemispheres above circles in P whichintersects the cylindrical region
ET := (x1, x2, y) ∈ H3 : x1 + ix2 ∈ E, T−1 ≤ y ≤ r0 (2.2)
where r0 > 0 is the radius of the largest circle in P intersecting E.Since the vertical plane over the real line in C is preserved by PSL2(R),
and PSL2(C) acts transitively on the space of all vertical hemispheres (in-cluding planes), the space of vertical hemispheres in H3 can be identifiedwith the homogeneous space PSL2(R)\PSL2(C). Since P consists of finitelymany A-orbits of circles in C, which corresponds to finitely many A-orbitsof points in PSL2(R)\PSL2(C), understanding the asymptotic formula ofNP(T,E) is a special case of the following more general counting problem:letting G = PSL2(C) and H = PSL2(R), for a given sequence of growingcompact subsets BT in H\G and a discrete A-orbit v0A in H\G,
what is the asymptotic formula of the number #BT ∩ v0A?
If A were of finite co-volume in PSL2(C), this type of question is well-understood due to the works of Duke-Rudnick-Sarnak [15] and Eskin-McMullen[17]. In the next section, we describe analogies/differences of this countingproblem for discrete subgroups of infinite covolume.
3. Counting, Mixing, and the Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure
Euclidean lattice point counting We begin with a simple example of thelattice point counting problem in Euclidean space. Let G = R3, Γ = Z3 andlet BT := x ∈ R3 : ‖x‖ ≤ T be the Euclidean ball of radius T centered atthe origin. In showing the well-known fact
#Z3 ∩BT ∼4π
3T 3,
one way is to count the Γ-translates of a fundamental domain, say F :=[−1
2 ,12) × [−1
2 ,12) × [−1
2 ,12) contained in BT , since each translate γ + F
contains precisely one point, that is, γ, from Γ. We have
Vol(BT−1)
Vol(F)≤ #γ + F ⊂ BT−1 : γ ∈ Z3
≤ #Z3 ∩BT ≤ #γ + F ⊂ BT+1 : γ ∈ Z3 ≤ Vol(BT+1)
Vol(F), (3.1)
10 HEE OH
SinceVol(BT±1)
Vol(F) = 4π3 (T ± 1)3, we obtain that
#Z3 ∩BT =4π
3T 3 +O(T 2).
This easily generalizes to the following: for any discrete subgroup Γ in R3
and a sequence BT of compact subsets in R3, we have
#Γ ∩BT =Vol(BT )
Vol(Γ\R3)+O(Vol(BT )1−η)
provided
• Vol(Γ\R3) <∞;• Vol(unit neighborhood of ∂(BT )) = O(Vol(BT )1−η) for some η > 0.
We have used here that the volume in R3 is computed with respect to theLebesgue measure which is clearly left Γ-invariant so that it makes sense to
write Vol(Γ\R3), and that the ratio Vol(unit neighborhood of ∂(BT ))Vol(BT ) tends to 0 as
T →∞.
Hyperbolic lattice point counting We now consider the hyperbolic lat-tice counting problem for H3. Let G = PSL2(C) and Γ be a torsion-free,co-compact, discrete subgroup of G. The group G possess a Haar measureµG which is both left and right invariant under G, in particular, it is left-invariant under Γ. By abuse of notation, we use the same notation µG forthe induced measure on Γ\G. Fix o = (0, 0, 1) so that g 7→ g(o) inducesan isomorphism of H3 with G/PSU(2) and hence µG also induces a leftG-invariant measure on H3, which will again be denoted by µG. Considerthe hyperbolic ball BT = x ∈ H3 : d(o, x) ≤ T where d is the hyperbolicdistance in H3. Then, for a fixed fundamental domain F for Γ in H3 whichcontains o in its interior, we have inequalities similar to (3.1):
Vol(BT−d)
Vol(Γ\G)≤ #γ(F) ⊂ BT−d : γ ∈ Γ
≤ #Γ(o) ∩BT ≤ #γ(F) ⊂ BT+d : γ ∈ Γ ≤ Vol(BT+d)
Vol(Γ\G)(3.2)
where d is the diameter of F and the volumes Vol(BT±d) and Vol(Γ\G) arecomputed with respect to µG on H3 and Γ\G respectively.
If we had Vol(BT−d) ∼ Vol(BT+d) as T → ∞ as in the Euclidean case,
we would be able to conclude from here that #Γ(o) ∩ BT ∼ Vol(BT )Vol(Γ\G) from
(3.2). However, one can compute that Vol(BT ) ∼ c · e2T for some c >0 and hence the asymptotic formula Vol(BT−d) ∼ Vol(BT+d) is not true.This suggests that the above inequality (3.2) gives too crude estimation ofthe edge effect arising from the intersections of γ(F)’s with BT near theboundary of BT . It turns out that the mixing phenomenon of the geodesicflow on the unit tangent bundle T1(Γ\H3) with respect to µG precisely clearsout the fuzziness of the edge effect. The mixing of the geodesic flow follows
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 11
from the following mixing of the frame flow, or equivalently, the decay of
matrix coefficients due to Howe and Moore [28]: Let at :=
(et/2 0
0 e−t/2
).
Theorem 3.3 (Howe-Moore). Let Γ < G be a lattice. For any ψ1, ψ2 ∈Cc(Γ\G),
limt→∞
∫Γ\G
ψ1(gat)ψ2(g)dµG(g) =1
µG(Γ\G)
∫Γ\G
ψ1dµG ·∫
Γ\Gψ2dµG.
Indeed, using this mixing property of the Haar measure, there are nowvery well established counting result due to Duke-Rudnick-Sarnak [15], andEskin-McMullen[17]): we note that any symmetric subgroup of G is locallyisomorphic to SL2(R) or SU(2).
Theorem 3.4 (Duke-Rudnick-Sarnak, Eskin-McMullen). Let H be a sym-metric subgroup of G and Γ < G a lattice such that µH(Γ∩H\H) <∞, i.e.,H ∩Γ is a lattice in H. Then for any well-rounded sequence BT of compactsubsets in H\G and a discrete Γ-orbit [e]Γ, we have
#[e]Γ ∩BT ∼µH((H ∩ Γ)\H)
µG(Γ\G)·Vol(BT ) as T →∞.
Here the volume of BT is computed with respect to the invariant measureµH\G on H\G which satisfies µG = µH ⊗ µH\G locally.
A sequence BT ⊂ H\G is called well-rounded with respect to a measureµ on H\G if the boundaries of BT are µ-negligible, more precisely, if for allsmall ε > 0, the µ-measure of the ε-neighborhood of the boundary of BT isO(ε · µ(BT )) as T →∞.
The idea of using the mixing of the geodesic flow in the counting problemgoes back to Margulis’ 1970 thesis (translated in [34]).
We now consider the case when Γ < G = PSL2(C) is not a lattice, thatis, µG(Γ\G) = ∞. It turns out that as long as we have a left Γ-invariantmeasure, say, µ on G, satisfying
• µ(Γ\G) <∞;• µ is the mixing measure for the frame flow on Γ\G,
then the above heuristics of comparing the counting function for #Γ(o)∩BTto the volume µ(BT ) can be made into a proof.
For what kind of discrete groups Γ, do we have a left-Γ-nvariant measureon G satisfying these two conditions? Indeed when Γ is geometrically finite,the Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure mBMS on Γ\G satisfies these proper-ties. Moreover when Γ is convex cocompact (that is, geometrically finitewith no parabolic elements), the Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure is sup-ported on a compact subset of Γ\G. Therefore Γ acts co-compactly in theconvex hull CH(Λ(Γ)) of the limit set Λ(Γ); recall that Λ(Γ) is the set of allaccumulation points of Γ-orbits on the boundary ∂(H3). Hence if we denoteby F0 a compact fundamental domain for Γ in CH(Λ(Γ)), the inequality
12 HEE OH
(3.2) continues to hold if we replace the fundamental domain F of Γ in H3
by F0 and compute the volumes with respect to mBMS:
mBMS(BT−d0)
mBMS(Γ\G)≤ #γ(F0) ⊂ BT−d0 : γ ∈ Γ
≤ #Γ(o) ∩BT ≤ #γ(F0) ⊂ BT+d0 : γ ∈ Γ ≤ mBMS(BT+d0)
mBMS(Γ\G)(3.5)
where mBMS is the projection to H3 of the lift of mBMS to G and d0 is thediameter of F0. This suggests a heuristic expectation:
#Γ(o) ∩BT ∼mBMS(BT )
mBMS(Γ\G)
which turns out to be true.We denote by δ the Hausdorff dimension of Λ(Γ) which is known to be
equal to the critical exponent of Γ. Patterson [46] and Sullivan[56] con-structed a unique geometric probability measure νo on ∂(H3) satisfying thatfor any γ ∈ Γ, γ∗νo is absolutely continuous with respect to νo and for anyBorel subset E,
νo(γ(E)) =
∫E
(d(γ∗νo)
dνo
)δdνo.
This measure νo is called the Patterson-Sullivan measure viewed from o ∈H3. Then the Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure mBMS on T1(H3) is givenby
dmBMS(v) = f(v) dνo(v+)dνo(v
−)dt
where v± ∈ ∂(H3) are the forward and the backward endpoints of the geo-desic determined by v and t = βv−(o, v) measures the signed distance of thehoropsheres based at v− passing through o and v. The density function f isgiven by f(v) = eδ(βv+ (o,v)+βv− (o,v)) so that mBMS is left Γ-invariant Clearly,the support of mBMS is given by the set of v with v± ⊂ Λ(Γ). Noting thatT1(H3) is isomorphic to G/M where M = diag(eiθ, e−iθ), we will extendmBMS to an M -invariant measure on G. We use the same notation mBMS
to denote the measure induced on Γ\G.
Theorem 3.6. For Γ geometrically finite and Zariski dense,
(1) Finiteness: mBMS(Γ\G) <∞(2) Mixing: For any ψ1, ψ2 ∈ Cc(Γ\G), as t→∞,∫
Γ\Gψ1(gat)ψ2(g)dmBMS(g)→ 1
mBMS(Γ\G)
∫Γ\G
ψ1dmBMS
∫Γ\G
ψ2dmBMS.
The finiteness result (1) is due to Sullivan [56] and the mixing result (2)for frame flow is due to Flaminio-Spatzier [21] and Winter [59] based on thework of Rudolph [50] and Babillot [8].
In order to state an analogue of Theorem 3.4 for a general geometricallyfinite group, we need to impose a condition on (H ∩ Γ)\H analogous to
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 13
the finiteness of the volume µH(Γ ∩H\H). In [44], we define the so calledskinning measure µPS
H on (Γ ∩H)\H, which is intuitively the slice measureon H of mBMS. We note that µPS
H depends on Γ, not only on H ∩ Γ. Afiniteness criterion for µPS
H is given in [44]. The following is obtained in [44]non-effectively and [38] effectively.
Theorem 3.7 (O.-Shah, Mohammadi-O.). Let H be a symmetric subgroupof G and Γ < G a geometrically finite and Zariski dense subgroup. Supposethat the skinning measure of H ∩ Γ\H is finite, i.e., µPS
H (Γ ∩ H\H) < ∞.Then there exists an explicit locally finite Borel measure MH\G on H\Gsuch that for any well-rounded sequence BT of compact subsets in H\G withrespect to MH\G and a discrete Γ-orbit [e]Γ, we have
#[e]Γ ∩BT ∼µPSH ((H ∩ Γ)\H)
mBMS(Γ\G)· MH\G(BT ) as T →∞.
A special case of this theorem implies Theorem 1.8, modulo the compu-tation of the measure MH\G(ET ) where ET is given in (2.2). We mentionthat in the case when the critical exponent δ of Γ is strictly bigger than 1,both Theorem 3.7 and Theorem 1.8 can be effectivized by [38].
The reason that we have the α-dimensional Hausdorff measure in thestatement of Theorem 1.8 is because the slice measure of mBMS on eachhorizontal plane is the Patterson-Sullivan measure multiplied with a correctdensity function needed for the Γ-invariance, which turns out to coincidewith the δ-dimensional Hausdorff measure on the limit set of Λ(Γ) when allcusps of Γ are of rank at most 1, which is the case for the Apollonian group.
Counting problems for Γ-orbits in H\G are technically much more in-volved when H is non-compact than when H is compact, and relies onunderstanding the asymptotic distribution of Γ\ΓHat in Γ\G as t → ∞.When H = PSL2(R), the translate Γ\ΓHat corresponds to the orthogonaltranslate of a totally geodesic surface for time t, and we showed that, afterthe correct scaling of e(2−δ)t, Γ\ΓHat becomes equidistributed in Γ\G withrespect to the Burger-Roblin measure mBR, which is the unique non-trivialergodic horospherical invariant measure on Γ\G. We refer to [42], [43], [45]for more details.
More circle packings. This viewpoint of approaching Apollonian circlepackings via the study of Kleinian groups allows us to deal with more gen-eral circle packings, provided they are invariant under a non-elementarygeometrically finite Kleinian group.
One way to construct such circle packings is as follows:
Example 3.8. Let X be a finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifold with non-empty totally geodesic boundary. Then
• Γ := π1(X) is a geometrically finite Kleinian group;• By developing X in the upper half space H3, the domain of discon-
tinuity Ω(Γ) := C−Λ(Γ) consists of the disjoint union of open disks
14 HEE OH
Figure 7. Sierpinski curve
(corresponding to the boundary components of the universal cover
X).
Set P to be the union of circles which are boundaries of the disks in Ω(Γ).In this case, Res(P) defined as the closure of all circles in P is equal to thelimit set Λ(Γ).
In section 2, we explained how Apollonian circle packings can be describedin this way.
Figure 7, due to McMullen, is also an example of a circle packing ob-tained in this way, here the symmetry group Γ is the fundamental groupof a compact hyperbolic 3-manifold with totally geodesic boundary beinga compact surface of genus two. This limit set is called a Sierpinski curve,being homeomorphic to the well-known Sierpinski Carpet.
Many more pictures of circle packings constructed in this way can befound in the book ”Indra’s pearls” by Mumford, Series and Wright (Cam-bridge Univ. Press 2002).
For P constructed in Example 3.8, we define as before NP(T,E) :=#C ∈ P : C ∩ E 6= ∅, curv(C) ≤ T for any bounded Borel subset Ein C.
Theorem 3.9 (O.-Shah, [44]). There exist a constant cΓ > 0 and a locallyfinite Borel measure ωP on Res(P) such that for any bounded Borel subsetE ⊂ C with ωP(∂(E)) = 0,
NP(T,E) ∼ cΓ · ωP(E) · T δ as T →∞
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 15
where δ = dimH(Res(P)). Moreover, if Γ is convex cocompact or if thecusps of Γ have rank at most 1, then ωP coincides with the δ-dimensionalHausdorff measure on Res(P).
We refer to [44] for the statement for more general circle packings.
4. Integral Apollonian circle packings
We call an Apollonian circle packing P integral if every circle in P hasintegral curvature. Does there exist any integral P? The answer is positivethanks to the following beautiful theorem of Descartes:
Theorem 4.1 (Descartes 1643, [13]). A quadruple (a, b, c, d) is the curva-tures of four mutually tangent circles if and only if it satisfies the quadraticequation:
2(a2 + b2 + c2 + d2) = (a+ b+ c+ d)2.
In the above theorem, we ask circles to be oriented so that their interi-ors are disjoint with each other. For instance, according to this rule, thequadruple of curvatures of four largest four circles in Figure 3 is (−1, 2, 2, 3)or (1,−2,−2,−3), for which we can easily check the validity of the Descartestheorem: 2((−1)2 + 22 + 22 + 32) = 36 = (−1 + 2 + 2 + 3)2
In what follows, we will always assign the negative curvature to the largestbounding circle in a bounded Apollonian packing, so that all other circleswill then have positive curvatures.
Given three mutually tangent circles of curvatures a, b, c, the curvatures,say, d and d′, of the two circles tangent to all three must satisfy 2(a2 + b2 +c2 + d2) = (a+ b+ c+ d)2 and 2(a2 + b2 + c2 + (d′)2) = (a+ b+ c+ d′)2 bythe Descartes theorem. By subtracting the first equation from the second,
16 HEE OH
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41Figure 8. Integral Apollonian packings
we obtain the linear equation:
d+ d′ = 2(a+ b+ c).
So, if a, b, c, d are integers, so is d′. Since the curvature of every circle fromthe second generation or later is d′ for some 4 mutually tangent circles ofcurvatures a, b, c, d from the previous generation, we deduce:
Theorem 4.2 (Soddy 1937). If the initial 4 circles in an Apollonian packingP have integral curvatures, P is integral.
Combined with Descartes’ theorem, for any integral solution of 2(a2+b2+c2+d2) = (a+b+c+d)2, there exists an integral Apollonian packing! Becausethe smallest positive curvature must be at least 1, an integral Apollonianpacking cannot have arbitrarily large circles. In fact, any integral Apollonianpacking is either bounded or lies between two parallel lines.
For a given integral Apollonian packing P, it is natural to inquire aboutits Diophantine properties such as
Question 4.3. • Are there infinitely many circles with prime curva-tures?• Which integers appear as curvatures?
We call P primitive, if g. c.dC∈P(curv(C)) = 1. We call a circle is primeif its curvature is a prime number, and a pair of tangent prime circles willbe called twin prime circles. There are no triplet primes of three mutuallytangent circles, all having odd prime curvatures.
Theorem 4.4 (Sarnak 07). There are infinitely many prime circles as wellas twin prime circles in any primitive integral Apollonian packing.
In the rest of this section, we let P be a bounded primitive integral Apol-lonian packing. Theorem 4.4 can be viewed as an analogue of the infinitudeof prime numbers. In order to formulate what can be considered as ananalogue of the prime number theorem, we set
ΠT (P) := #prime C ∈ P : curv(C) ≤ T
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 17
andΠ
(2)T (P) := #twin primes C1, C2 ∈ P : curv(Ci) ≤ T.
Using the sieve method based on heuristics on the randomness of Mobiusfunction, Fuchs and Sanden [21] conjectured:
Conjecture 4.5 (Fuchs-Sanden).
ΠT (P) ∼ c1NP(T )
log T; Π
(2)T (P) ∼ c2
NP(T )
(log T )2
where c1 > 0 and c2 > 0 can be given explicitly.
Based on the breakthrough of Bourgain, Gamburd, Sarnak [3] provingthat the Cayley graphs of congruence quotients of the integral Apolloniangroup form an expander family, together with Selberg’s upper bound sieve,we obtain upper bounds of true order of magnitude:
Theorem 4.6 (Kontorovich-O. [30]). For T 1,
• ΠT (P) Tα
log T ;
• Π(2)T (P) Tα
(log T )2.
The lower bounds for Conjecture 4.5 are still open and very challenging.However a problem which is more amenable to current technology is to countcurvatures without multiplicity. Our counting Theorem 1.5 for circles saysthat the number of integers at most T arising as curvatures of circles inintegral P counted with multiplicity, is of order T 1.3.... So one may hopethat a positive density (=proportion) of integers arises as curvatures, asconjectured by Graham, Lagarias, Mallows, Wilkes, Yan (Positive densityconjecture) [24].
Theorem 4.7 (Bourgain-Fuchs [2]). For a primitive integral Apollonianpacking P,
#curv(C) ≤ T : C ∈ P T.
A stronger conjecture, called the Strong Density conjecture, of Grahamet al. says that every integer occurs as the value of a curvature of a circlein P, unless there are congruence obstructions. Fuchs [19] showed that theonly congruence obstructions are modulo 24, and hence the strong positivedensity conjecture (or the local-global principle conjecture) says that everysufficiently large integer which is congruent to a curvature of a circle in Pmodulo 24 must occur as the value of a curvature of some circle in P. Thisconjecture is still open, but there is now a stronger version of the positivedensity theorem:
Theorem 4.8 (Bourgain-Kontorovich [5]). For a primitive integral Apollo-nian packing P,
#curv(C) ≤ T : C ∈ P ∼ κ(P)
24· T
where κ(P) > 0 is the number of residue classes mod 24 of curvatures of P.
18 HEE OH
Improving Sarnak’s result on the infinitude of prime circles, Bourgainshowed that a positive fraction of prime numbers appear as curvatures inP.
Theorem 4.9 (Bourgain [6]).
#prime curv(C) ≤ T : C ∈ P T
log T.
Integral Apollonian group. In studying the Diophantine properties ofintegral Apollonian packings, we work with the integral Apollonian group,rather than the geometric Apollonian group which was defined in section 2.
We call a quadruple (a, b, c, d) a Descartes quadruple if it represents cur-vatures of four mutually tangent circles (oriented so that their interiors aredisjoint) in the plane. By Descartes’ theorem, any Descartes quadruple(a, b, c, d) lies on the cone Q(x) = 0, where Q denotes the so-called Descartesquadratic form
Q(a, b, c, d) = 2(a2 + b2 + c2 + d2)− (a+ b+ c+ d)2.
The quadratic form Q has signature (3, 1) and hence over the reals, theorthogonal group OQ is isomorphic to O(3, 1), which is the isometry groupof the hyperbolic 3-space H3.
We observe that if (a, b, c, d) and (a, b, c, d′) are Descartes quadruples,then d′ = −d+ 2(a+ b+ c) and hence (a, b, c, d′) = (a, b, c, d)S4 where
S1 =
−1 0 0 02 1 0 02 0 1 02 0 0 1
, S2 =
1 2 0 00 −1 0 00 2 1 00 2 0 1
,
S3 =
1 0 2 00 1 2 00 0 −1 00 0 2 1
, S4 =
1 0 0 20 1 0 20 0 1 20 0 0 −1
.
Now the integral Apollonian group A is generated by those four reflectionsS1, S2, S3, S4 in GL4(Z) and one can check that A < OQ(Z).
Fixing an integral Apollonian circle packing P, all Descartes quadruplesassociated to P is a single A-orbit in the cone Q = 0. Moreover if wechoose a root quadruple vP from P, which consists of curvatures of fourlargest mutually tangent circles, any reduced word wn = vPSi1 · · ·Sin withSij ∈ S1, S2, S3, S4 is obtained from wn−1 = vPSi1 · · ·Sin−1 by changingprecisely one entry and this new entry is the maximum entry of wn, which isthe curvature of a precisely one new circle added at the n-th generation [24].This gives us the translation of the circle counting problem for a boundedApollonian packings as the orbital counting problem of an A-orbit in a coneQ = 0:
NT (P) = #v ∈ vPA : ‖v‖max ≤ T+ 3.
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 19
The integral Apollonian group A is isomorphic to the geometric Apol-lonian group AP (the subgroup generated by four inversions with respectto the dual circles of four mutually tangent circles in P): there exists an
explicit isomorphism between the orthogonal group OQ and Mob(C) whichmaps the integral Apollonian group A to the geometric Apollonian groupAP . In particular, A is a subgroup OQ(Z) which is of infinite index andZariski dense in OQ. Such a subgroup is called a thin group. Diophantineproperties of an integral Apollonian packing is now reduced to the studyof Diophantine properties of an orbit of the thin group A. Unlike orbitsunder an arithmetic subgroup (subgroups of OQ(Z) of finite index) whichhas a rich theory of automorphic forms and ergodic theory, the study ofthin groups has begun very recently, but with a great success. In particular,the recent developments in expanders is one of key ingredients in studyingprimes or almost primes in thin orbits (see [6]).
5. Expanders and Sieve
All graphs will be assumed to be simple (no multiple edges and no loops)and connected in this section. For a finite k-regular graph X = X(V,E)with V = v1, · · · , vn the set of vertices and E the set of edges, the ad-jacency matrix A = (aij) is defined by aij = 1 if vi, vj ∈ E and aij = 0otherwise. Since A is a symmetric real matrix, it has n real eigenvalues:λ0(X) ≥ λ1(X) ≥ · · · ≥ λn−1(X). As X is simple and connected, thelargest eigenvalue λ0(X) is given by k and has multiplicity one.
Definition 5.1. A family of k-regular graphs Xi with ( #Xi → ∞) iscalled an expander family if there exists an ε0 > 0 such that
supiλ1(Xi) ≤ k − ε0.
Equivalently, Xi is an expander family if there exists a uniform positivelower bound for the Cheeger constant (or isoperimetric constant)
h(Xi) := min0<#W≤#Xi/2
#∂(W )
#W
where ∂(W ) means the set of edges with exactly one vertex in W . Notethat the bigger the Cheeger constant is, the harder it is to break the graphinto two pieces. Intuitively speaking, an expander family is a family ofsparse graphs (as the regularity k is fixed) with high connectivity properties(uniform lower bound for the Cheeger constants).
Although it was known that there has to be many expander families us-ing probabilistic arguments due to Pinsker, the first explicit constructionof an expander family is due to Margulis in 1973 [35] using the representa-tion theory of a simple algebraic group and automorphic form theory. Weexplain his construction below; strictly speaking, what we describe belowis not exactly same as his original construction but the idea of using the
20 HEE OH
representation theory of an ambient algebraic group is the main point of hisconstruction as well as in the examples below.
Let G be a connected simple non-compact real algebraic group definedover Q, with a fixed Q-embedding into SLN . Let G(Z) := G ∩ SLN (Z) andΓ < G(Z) be a finitely generated subgroup. For each positive integer q, theprincipal congruence subgroup Γ(q) of level q is defined to be γ ∈ Γ : γ = emod q.
Fix a finite symmetric generating subset S for Γ. Then S generates thegroup Γ(q)\Γ via the canonical projection. We denote byXq := C(Γ(q)\Γ, S)the Cayley graph of the group Γ(q)\Γ with respect to S, that is, vertices ofXq are elements of Γ(q)\Γ and two elements g1, g2 form an edge if g1 = g2sfor some s ∈ S. Then Xq is a connected k-regular graph for k = #S. Nowa key observation due to Margulis is that if Γ is of finite index in G(Z),or equivalently if Γ is a lattice in G, then the following two properties areequivalent: for any I ⊂ N,
(1) The family Xq : q ∈ I is an expander;(2) The trivial representation 1G is isolated in the sum ⊕q∈IL2(Γ(q)\G)
in the Fell topology of the set of unitary representations of G.
We won’t give a precise definition of the Fell topology, but just say that thesecond property is equivalent to the following: for a fixed compact generatingsubset Q of G, there exists ε > 0 (independent of q ∈ I) such that any unitvector f ∈ L2(Γ(q)\G) satisfying maxq∈Q ‖q.f−f‖ < ε is G-invariant, i.e., aconstant. Briefly speaking, it follows almost immediately from the definitionof an expander family that the family Xq is an expander if and only ifthe trivial representation 1Γ of Γ is isolated in the sum ⊕qL2(Γ(q)\Γ). Onthe other hand,the induced representation of 1Γ from Γ to G is L2(Γ\G),which contains the trivial representation 1G, if Γ is a lattice in G. Therefore,by the continuity of the induction process, the weak containment of 1Γ in⊕qL2(Γ(q)\Γ) implies the weak-containment of 1G in ⊕qL2(Γ(q)\G), whichexplains why (2) implies (1).
The isolation property of 1G as in (2) holds for G; if the real rank ofG is at least 2 or G is a rank one group of type Sp(m, 1) or F−20
4 , Ghas the so-called Kazhdan’s property (T) [29], which says that the trivialrepresentation of G is isolated in the whole unitary dual of G. When G isisomorphic to SO(m, 1) or SU(m, 1) which do not have Kazhdan’s property(T), the isolation of the trivial representation is still true in the subset ofall automorphic representations L2(Γ(q)\G)’s, due to the work of Selberg,Burger-Sarnak [11] and Clozel [14]. This latter property is referred as thephenomenon that G has property τ with respect to the congruence familyΓ(q).
Therefore, we have:
Theorem 5.2. If Γ is of finite index in G(Z), then the family Xq =C(Γ(q)\Γ, S) : q ∈ N is an expander family.
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 21
In the case when Γ is of infinite index, the trivial representation is notcontained in L2(Γ(q)\G), as the constant function is not square-integrable,and the above correspondence cannot be used, and deciding whether Xq
forms an expander or not for a thin group was a longstanding open problem.
For instance, if Sk consists of four matrices
(1 ±k0 1
)and
(1 0±k 1
), then
the group Γk generated by Sk has finite index only for k = 1, 2 and hence weknow the family Xq(k) = C(Γk(q)\Γk, Sk) forms an expander for k = 1, 2by Theorem 5.2 but the subgroup Γ3 generated by S3 has infinite index inSL2(Z) and it was not known whether Xq(3) is an expander family untilthe work of Bourgain, Gamburd and Sarnak [3].
Theorem 5.3 (Bourgain-Gamburd-Sarnak [3], Salehi-Golsefidy-Varju [51]).Let Γ < G(Z) be a thin subgroup, i.e., Γ is Zariski dense in G. Let S be a fi-nite symmetric generating subset of Γ. Then C(Γ(q)\Γ, S) : q: square-freeforms an expander family.
If G is simply connected in addition, the strong approximation theoremof Matthews, Vaserstein and Weisfeiler [33] says that there is a finite set Bof primes such that for all q with no prime factors from B, Γ(q)\Γ is isomor-phic to the finite group G(Z/qZ) via the canonical projection Γ→ G(Z/qZ);hence the corresponding Cayley graph C(G(Z/qZ), S) is connected. Simi-larly, Theorem 5.3 says that the Cayley graphs C(G(Z/qZ), S) with q square-free and with no factors from B are highly connected, forming an expanderfamily; called the super-strong approximation Theorem.
The proof of Theorem 5.3 is based on additive combinatorics and Helf-gott’s work on approximate subgroups [27] and generalizations made byPyber-Szabo [47] and Breuillard-Green-Tao [9] (see also [25]).
The study of expanders has many surprising applications in various areasof mathematics (see [54]). We describe its application in sieves, i.e., inthe study of primes. For motivation, we begin by considering an integralpolynomial f ∈ Z[x]. The following is a basic question:
Are there infinitely many integers n ∈ Z such that f(n) is prime?
• If f(x) = x, the answer is yes; this is the infinitude of primes.• If f(x) = ax + b, the answer is yes if and only if a, b are co-prime.
This is Dirichlet’s theorem.• If f(x) = x(x+ 2), then there are no primes in f(Z) for an obvious
reason. On the other hand, Twin prime conjecture says that thereare infinitely many n’s such that f(n) is a product of at most 2primes. Indeed, Brun introduced what is called Brun’s combinato-rial sieve to attack this type of question, and proved that there areinfinitely many n’s such that f(n) = n(n + 2) is 20-almost prime,i.e., a product of at most 20 primes. His approach was improvedby Chen [12] who was able to show such a tantalizing theorem thatthere are infinitely many n’s such that f(n) = n(n + 2) is 3-almostprime.
22 HEE OH
In view of the last example, the correct question is formulated as follows:
Is there R <∞ such that the set of n ∈ Z such that f(n) is R-almostprime is infinite?
Bourgain, Gamburd and Sarnak [4] made a beautiful observation thatBrun’s combinatorial sieve can also be implemented for orbits of Γ on anaffine space via affine linear transformations and the expander property ofthe Cayley graphs of the congruence quotients of Γ provides a crucial inputneeded in executing the sieve machine.
Continuing our setup that G ⊂ SLN and Γ < G(Z), we consider the orbitO = v0Γ ⊂ ZN for a non-zero v0 ∈ ZN and let f ∈ Q[x1, · · · , xN ] such thatf(O) ⊂ Z.
Theorem 5.4 (Bourgain-Gamburd-Sarnak [4], Sarnak-Salehi-Golsefidy [52]).There exists R = R(O, f) ≥ 1 such that the set of vectors v ∈ O such thatf(v) is R-almost prime is Zariski dense in v0G.
We ask the following finer question:
Describe the distribution of the set v ∈ O : f(v) is R-almost prime in thevariety v0G.
In other words, is the set in concern focused in certain directions in O orequi-distributed in O? This is a very challenging question at least in the samegenerality as the above theorem, but when G is the orthogonal group of theDescartes quadratic form Q, Q(v0) = 0, and Γ is the integral Apolloniangroup, we are able to give more or less a satisfactory answer by [30] and[32]. More generally, we have the following: Let F be an integral quadraticform of signature (n, 1) and let Γ < SOF (Z) be a geometrically finite Zariskidense subgroup. Suppose that the critical exponent δ of Γ is bigger than(n− 1)/2 if n = 2, 3 and bigger than n− 2 if n ≥ 4. Let v0 ∈ Zn+1 be non-zero and O := v0Γ. We also assume that the skinning measure associatedto v0 and Γ is finite.
Theorem 5.5 (Mohammadi-O. [38]). Let f = f1 · · · fk ∈ Q[x1, · · · , xn+1]be a polynomial with each fi absolutely irreducible and distinct with rationalcoefficients and fi(O) ⊂ Z. Then we construct an explicit locally finitemeasure M on the variety v0G, depending on Γ such that for any familyBT of subsets in v0G which is effectively well-rounded with respect to M, wehave
(1) Upper bound: #v ∈ O∩BT : each fi(v) is prime M(BT )(logM(BT ))k
;
(2) Lower bound: Assuming further that maxx∈BT ‖x‖ M(BT )β
for some β > 0, there exists R = R(O, f) > 1 such that
#v ∈ O ∩ BT : f(v) is R-almost prime M(BT )
(logM(BT ))k.
The terminology of BT being effectively well-rounded with respect to Mmeans that there exists p > 0 such that for all small ε > 0 and for all
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 23
T 1, the M-measure of the ε-neighborhood of the boundary of BT is atmost of order O(εpM(BT )) with the implied constant independent of ε andT . For instance, the norm balls v ∈ v0G : ‖v‖ ≤ T and many sectors areeffectively well-rounded (cf. [38]).
When Γ is of finite index, M is just a G-invariant measure on v0G andthis theorem was proved earlier by Nevo-Sarnak [41] and Gorodnik-Nevo[22].
If Q is the Descartes quadratic form, A is the integral Apollonian group,and BT = v ∈ R4 : Q(v) = 0, ‖v‖max ≤ T is the max-norm ball, then forany primitive integral Apollonian packing P, the number of prime circles inP of curvature at most T is bounded by
4∑i=1
#v ∈ vPA ∩ BT , f(v) := vi prime
which is bounded by M(BT )log(M(BT )) by Theorem 5.5. Since we have M(BT ) =
c · Tα +O(Tα−η) where α = 1.305... is the critical exponent of A, this givesan upper bound Tα/ log T for the number of prime circles of curvature atmost T , as stated in Theorem 4.6. The upper bound for twin prime circlecount can be done similarly with f(v) = vivj .
Here are a few words on Brun’s combinatorial sieve and its use in Theorem5.5. Let A = am be a sequence of non-negative numbers and let B bea finite set of primes. For z > 1, let Pz =
∏p/∈B,p<z p and S(A, Pz) :=∑
(m,Pz)=1 am. To estimate Sz := S(A, Pz), we need to understand how A is
distributed along arithmetic progressions. For q square-free, define
Aq := am ∈ A : n ≡ 0(q)and set |Aq| :=
∑m≡0(q) am.
We use the following combinatorial sieve (see [26, Theorem 7.4]):
Theorem 5.6. (A1) For q square-free with no factors in B, suppose that
|Aq| = g(q)X + rq(A)
where g is a function on square-free integers with 0 ≤ g(p) < 1, gis multiplicative outside B, i.e., g(d1d2) = g(d1)g(d2) if d1 and d2
are square-free integers with (d1, d2) = 1 and (d1d2, B) = 1, and forsome c1 > 0, g(p) < 1− 1/c1 for all prime p /∈ B.
(A2) A has level distribution D, in the sense that for some ε > 0 andCε > 0, ∑
q<D
|rq(A)| ≤ CεX 1−ε.
(A3) A has sieve dimension k in the sense that there exists c2 > 0 suchthat for all 2 ≤ w ≤ z,
−c2 ≤∑
(p,B)=1,w≤p≤z
g(p) log p− r logz
w≤ c2.
24 HEE OH
Then for s > 9r, z = D1/s and X large enough,
S(A, Pz) X
(logX )k.
For our orbit O = v0Γ and f as in Theorem 5.5, we set
am(T ) := #x ∈ O ∩ BT : f(x) = m;Γv0(q) := γ ∈ Γ : v0γ ≡ v0 (q),|A(T )| :=
∑m
am(T ) = #O ∩ BT ;
|Aq(T )| :=∑
m≡0(q)
am(T ) = #x ∈ O ∩ BT : f(x) ≡ 0 (q).
Suppose we can verify the sieve axioms for these sequences Aq(T ) and zof order T η. Observe that if (f(v) = m,Pz) = 1, then all prime factors ofm have to be at least of order z = T η. It follows that if f(v) = m has R
prime factors, then T ηR m T degree(f), and hence R (degree f)/η.Therefore, Sz :=
∑(m,Pz)=1 am(T ) gives an estimate of the number of all
v ∈ O such that f(v) is R-almost prime for R = (degree f)/η.In order to verify these sieve axioms for O = v0Γ, we replace Γ by its
preimage under the spin cover G of G, so that Γ satisfies the strong approxi-mation property that Γ(q)\Γ = G(Z/qZ) outside a fixed finite set of primes.The most crucial condition is to understand the distribution of am(T )’s alongthe arithmetic progressions, i.e.,
∑m=0 (q) am(T ) for all square-free integers
q, more precisely, we need to have a uniform control on the remainder termrq of Aq(T ) =
∑m=0 (q) am = g(q)X + rq such as rq X 1−ε for some ε > 0
independent of q. By writing
Aq(T ) =∑
γ∈Γv0 (q)\Γ,f(v0γ)=0 (q)
#(v0Γv0(q)γ ∩ BT )
the following uniform counting estimates provide such a control on the re-mainder term:
Theorem 5.7 (Mohammadi-O. [38]). Let Γ and BT be as in Theorem 5.5.For any γ ∈ Γ and any square-free integer q,
#v0Γ(q)γ ∩ BT =c0
[Γ : Γ(q)]M(BT ) +O(M(BT )1−ε)
where c0 > 0 and ε > 0 are independent over all γ ∈ Γ and q.
A basic ingredient of Theorem 5.7 is a uniform spectral gap for the Lapla-cian acting on L2(Γ(q)\Hn). Note that zero is no more the base-eigenvalueof the Laplacian when Γ(q) is a thin group, but δ(n−1−δ) is by Sullivan [57]and Lax-Phillips [31]. However, the expander result (Theorem 5.3) impliesa uniform lower bound for the gap between the base eigenvalue δ(n− 1− δ)and the next one; this transfer property was obtained by Bourgain, Gam-burd and Sarnak. As explained in section 3, the mixing of frame flow of the
APOLLONIAN PACKINGS 25
Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure is a crucial ingredient in obtaining themain term in Theorem 5.7, and the (uniform) error term in the countingstatement of Theorem 5.7 is again a consequence of a uniform error term inthe effective mixing of frame flow, at least under our hypothesis on δ.
References
[1] Jean Bourgain. Integral Apollonian circle packings and prime curvatures. Preprint.arXiv:1105:5127, 2011
[2] Jean Bourgain and Elena Fuchs. A proof of the positive density conjecture for integerApollonian packings J. Amer. Math. Soc. 24, 945–967, 2011
[3] Jean Bourgain, Alex Gamburd, and Peter Sarnak. Affine linear sieve, expanders, andsum-product Inventiones 179, (2010) 559-644
[4] Jean Bourgain, Alex Gamburd, and Peter Sarnak. Generalization of Selberg’s 3/16theorem and Affine sieve Acta Math. 207, (2011) 255–290
[5] Jean Bourgain and Alex Kontorovich. On the Local-Global conjecture for IntegralApollonian gaskets To appear in Inventiones. arXiv:1205:4416, 2012
[6] Jean Bourgain. Some Diophantine applications of the theory of group expansion InThin groups and superstrong approximation, edited by Breulliard and Oh, MSRI Publ61, Cambridge press.
[7] David W. Boyd. The sequence of radii of the Apollonian packing. Math. Comp.,39(159):249–254, 1982.
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Mathematics department, Yale university, New Haven, CT 06520 and KoreaInstitute for Advanced Study, Seoul, Korea
E-mail address: [email protected]