A Central Limit Theorem For Periodic Orbits Of Hyperbolic Flows

We consider a counting problem in the setting of hyperbolic dynamics. Let phi(t) : Lambda -> Lambda be a weak-mixing hyperbolic flow. We count the proportion of prime periodic orbits of phi(t), with length less than T, that satisfy an averaging condition related to a Holder continuous function f : Lambda -> R. We show, assuming an approximability condition on phi, that as T ->infinity, we obtain a central limit theorem. The proof uses transfer operator estimates due to Dolgopyat to provide the bounds on complex functions that we need to carry out our analysis. We can then use contour integration to obtain the asymptotic behaviour which gives the central limit theorem.