Let$M$be a smooth manifold and$V$a Euclidean space. Let $ \overline{{{\text{Emb}}}} $ ($M$,$V$) be the homotopy fiber of the map Emb($M$,$V$) → Imm($M$,$V$). This paper is about the rational homology of $ \overline{{{\text{Emb}}}} $ ($M$,$V$). We study it by applying embedding calculus and orthogonal calculus to the bifunctor ($M$,$V$)↦$HQ$∧ $ \overline{{{\text{Emb}}}} $ ($M$,$V$)_{+}. Our main theorem states that if $$ \dim V \geqslant 2{\text{ED}}{\left( M \right)} + 1 $$ (where ED($M$) is the embedding dimension of$M$), the Taylor tower in the sense of orthogonal calculus (henceforward called “the orthogonal tower”) of this functor splits as a product of its layers. Equivalently, the rational homology spectral sequence associated with the tower collapses at$E$^{1}. In the case of knot embeddings, this spectral sequence coincides with the Vassiliev spectral sequence. The main ingredients in the proof are embedding calculus and Kontsevich's theorem on the formality of the little balls operad. We write explicit formulas for the layers in the orthogonal tower of the functor $$ HQ \wedge \overline{{{\text{Emb}}}} {\left( {M,V} \right)}_{ + }. $$ The formulas show, in particular, that the (rational) homotopy type of the layers of the orthogonal tower is determined by the (rational) homotopy type of$M$. This, together with our rational splitting theorem, implies that, under the above assumption on codimension, rational homology equivalences of manifolds induce isomorphisms between the rational homology groups of $ \overline{{{\text{Emb}}}} $ (–,V).

We show that the scaling limit exists and is invariant under dilations and rotations. We give some tools that might be useful to show universality.

We show that in the generic case the smooth noncommutative tori associated with two$n$×$n$real skew-symmetric matrices are Morita equivalent if and only if the matrices are in the same orbit of the natural SO($n$,$n$∣$Z$) action.

We prove$L$^{$p$}boundedness of certain non-translation-invariant discrete maximal Radon transforms and discrete singular Radon transforms. We also prove maximal, pointwise, and$L$^{$p$}ergodic theorems for certain families of non-commuting operators.

A$generalized polynomial$is a real-valued function which is obtained from conventional polynomials by the use of the operations of addition, multiplication, and taking the integer part; a$generalized polynomial mapping$is a vector-valued mapping whose coordinates are generalized polynomials. We show that any bounded generalized polynomial mapping$u$:$Z$^{$d$}→$R$^{$l$}has a representation$u$($n$) =$f$($ϕ$($n$)$x$),$n$∈$Z$^{$d$}, where$f$is a piecewise polynomial function on a compact nilmanifold$X$,$x$∈$X$, and$ϕ$is an ergodic$Z$^{$d$}-action by translations on$X$. This fact is used to show that the sequence$u$($n$),$n$∈$Z$^{$d$}, is well distributed on a piecewise polynomial surface $\mathcal{S}\subset\mathbf{R}^{l}$ (with respect to the Borel measure on $\mathcal{S}$ that is the image of the Lebesgue measure under the piecewise polynomial function defining $\mathcal{S}$ ). As corollaries we also obtain a von Neumann-type ergodic theorem along generalized polynomials and a result on Diophantine approximations extending the work of van der Corput and of Furstenberg–Weiss.