Abstract. Let L be a non-archimedean local field of characteristic 0. In this talk we will present a variant of the theory of (\varphi,\Gamma)-modules associated with Lubin-Tate groups, developed by Kisin and Ren, in which we replace the Lubin-Tate tower by the maximal abelian extension \Gamma=Gal (L^ab/L). This variation allows us to compute the functors of induction and restriction for (\varphi,\Gamma)-modules, when the ground field L changes. If time permits, we will also discuss the Cherbonnier-Colmez theorem on overconvergence in our setting. Joint work with Ehud de Shalit.

The family of high rank arithmetic groups is a class of groups playing an important role in various areas of mathematics. It includes SL(n,Z), for n>2 , SL(n, Z[1/p] ) for n>1, their finite index subgroups and many more. A number of remarkable results about them have been proven including; Mostow rigidity, Margulis Super rigidity and the Quasi-isometric rigidity.

An old result of Hedlund tells us that there are no closed orbits for the horocycle flow on a compact Riemann surface M. The situation is different if M is non-compact in which case there is a one-parameter family of periodic orbits for every cusp of M. I want to talk about a result by Sarnak concerning the distribution of the such orbits in each of these families when their length goes to infinity. It turns out that these orbits become equidistributed in M and the rate of convergence can in fact be quantified in terms of spectral properties of the Eisenstein series on M.

Suppose that a countable group $G$ acts on a compact metric space $X$ and that $S \subset G$ is a semigroup not containing the identity of $G$. If every continuous function $f$ on $X$ is contained in the closed algebra generated by $\{sf : s \in S\}$, the action is said to be $S$-predictable. In this talk, we consider the following question due to Hochman: When $G$ is amenable, does $S$-predictability imply zero topological entropy? To provide an affirmative answer, we introduce the notion of a random invariant order.