Spectra of Ruelle Transfer Operators for Contact Flows

In this survey article we discuss some recent results concerning strong spectral estimates for Ruelle transfer operators for contact flows on basic sets similar to these of Dolgopyat obtained in the case of Anosov flows with C1 stable and unstable foliations. Some applications of Dolgopyat's results and the more recent ones are also described.

Geometric Stable Laws Through Series Representations

Let (Xi ) be a sequence of i.i.d. random variables, and let N be a geometric random variable independent of (Xi ). Geometric stable distributions are weak limits of (normalized) geometric compounds, SN = X1 + · · · + XN , when the mean of N converges to infinity. By an appropriate representation of the individual summands in SN we obtain series representation of the limiting geometric stable distribution. In addition, we study the asymptotic behavior of the partial sum process SN (t) = ⅀( i=1 ... [N t] ) Xi , and derive series representations of the limiting geometric stable process and the corresponding stochastic integral. We also obtain strong invariance principles for stable and geometric stable laws.