On the hyperbolic orbital counting problem in conjugacy classes

Abstract: Given a discrete group $\Gamma$ of isometries of a negatively curved manifold $\widetilde M$, a nontrivial conjugacy class $\mathfrak K$ in $\Gamma$ and $x_0\in\widetilde M$, we give asymptotic counting results, as $t\to +\infty$, on the number of orbit points $\gamma x_0$ at distance at most $t$ from $x_0$, when $\gamma$ is restricted to be in $\mathfrak K$, as well as related equidistribution results. These results generalise and extend work of Huber on cocompact hyperbolic lattices in dimension $2$. We also study the growth of given conjugacy classes in finitely generated groups endowed with a word metric.