Asymptotic geometry and growth of conjugacy classes of nonpositively curved manifolds

Abstract

Let X be a Hadamard manifold and $\Gamma$ a discrete group of isometries of X which contains an axial isometry without invariant flat half plane. We study the behavior of conformal densities on the geometric limit set of $\Gamma$ in order to derive a new asymptotic estimate for the growth rate of closed geodesics in not necessarily compact or finite volume manifolds.

revised version: added reference, corrected typos, 17 pages, to appear in Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry