Values of indefinite quadratic forms at integral points and flows on spaces of lattices

Abstract

This mostly expository paper centers on recently proved conjectures in two areas: A) A conjecture of A. Oppenheim on the values of real indefinite quadratic forms at integral points. B) Conjectures of Dani, Raghunathan, and Margulis on closures of orbits in spaces of lattices such as ${\BSL}_n(\R)/{\BSL}_n(\Z)$. At first sight, A) belongs to analytic number theory and B) belongs to ergodic and Lie theory, and they seem to be quite unrelated. They are discussed together here because of a very interesting connection between the two pointed out by M. S. Raghunathan, namely, a special case of B) yields a proof of A).