Professor Mark Pollicott has been awarded a 5-year EPSRC Leadership Fellowship for his proposal: ''Applications of ergodic theory to geometry''. An element of the £934k support will be support for 2 three year postdocs.

The proposed research lies at the interface of Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems, geometry, number theory, partial differential operators and mathematical physics. Central to this research programme are the the application of ideas from smooth ergodic theory to problems in different areas of mathematics.

A key idea is the development of the theory of dynamical zeta functions. The most familiar zeta function in mathematics is the Riemann zeta function, which is used to study prime numbers. Dynamical zeta functions are defined analogously, where prime numbers are replaced by closed orbits of hyperbolic (or chaotic) dynamical systems as the main objects of interest.

Links:
Proposal title and details