Equidistribution of divergent diagonal orbits in positive characteristic

Abstract

Given a local field $\widehat K$ with positive characteristic, we study the dynamics of the diagonal subgroup of the linear group $\operatorname{GL}_n(\widehat K)$ on homogeneous spaces of discrete lattices in ${\widehat K}^{\,n}$. We first give a function field version of results by Margulis and Tomanov-Weiss, characterizing the divergent diagonal orbits. When $n=2$, we relate the divergent diagonal orbits with the divergent orbits of the geodesic flow in the modular quotient of the Bruhat-Tits tree of $\operatorname{PGL}_2(\widehat K)$. Using the (high) entropy method by Einsiedler-Lindentraus et al, we then give a function field version of a result of David-Shapira on the equidistribution of a natural family of these divergent diagonal orbits, with height given by a new notion of discriminant of the orbits.