Let f be a germ of a holomorphic diffeomorphism with an irrationally indifferent fixed point at the origin in ${\mathbb C}$ (i.e. $f(0) = 0, f'(0) = e^{2\pi i \alpha }, \alpha \in {\mathbb R} - {\mathbb Q}$ ). Pérez-Marco [Fixed points and circle maps. Acta Math.179(2) (1997), 243–294] showed the existence of a unique continuous monotone one-parameter family of non-trivial invariant full continua containing the fixed point called Siegel compacta, and gave a correspondence between germs and families $(g_t)$ of circle maps obtained by conformally mapping the complement of these compacts to the complement of the unit disk. The family of circle maps $(g_t)$ is the orbit of a locally defined semigroup $(\Phi _t)$ on the space of analytic circle maps, which we show has a well-defined infinitesimal generator X. The explicit form of X is obtained by using the Loewner equation associated to the family of hulls $(K_t)$ . We show that the Loewner measures $(\mu _t)$ driving the equation are 2-conformal measures on the circle for the circle maps $(g_t)$ .

We study convergence of return- and hitting-time distributions of small sets $E_{k}$ with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}(E_{k})\rightarrow 0$ in recurrent ergodic dynamical systems preserving an infinite measure $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$. Some properties which are easy in finite measure situations break down in this null-recurrent set-up. However, in the presence of a uniform set $Y$ with wandering rate regularly varying of index $1-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\in (0,1]$, there is a scaling function suitable for all subsets of $Y$. In this case, we show that return distributions for the $E_{k}$ converge if and only if the corresponding hitting-time distributions do, and we derive an explicit relation between the two limit laws. Some consequences of this result are discussed. In particular, this leads to improved sufficient conditions for convergence to ${\mathcal{E}}^{1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}{\mathcal{G}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$, where ${\mathcal{E}}$ and ${\mathcal{G}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$ are independent random variables, with ${\mathcal{E}}$ exponentially distributed and ${\mathcal{G}}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$ following the one-sided stable law of order $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ (and ${\mathcal{G}}_{1}:=1$). The same principle also reveals the limit laws (different from the above) which occur at hyperbolic periodic points of prototypical null-recurrent interval maps. We also derive similar results for the barely recurrent $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=0$ case.