# American Institute of Mathematical Sciences

ISSN:
1930-5311

eISSN:
1930-532X

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## Journal of Modern Dynamics

2016 , Volume 10

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2016, 10: 1-21 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.1 +[Abstract](265) +[PDF](231.6KB)
Abstract:
In this note, we consider the orbits $\{pu(n^{1+\gamma})|n\in\mathbb N\}$ in $\Gamma\backslash\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$, where $\Gamma$ is a non-uniform lattice in $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$ and $\{u(t)\}$ is the standard unipotent one-parameter subgroup in $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$. Under a Diophantine condition on~the initial point $p$, we can prove that the trajectory $\{pu(n^{1+\gamma})|n\in\mathbb N\}$ is equidistributed in $\Gamma\backslash\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$ for small $\gamma>0$, which generalizes a result of Venkatesh [22].
2016, 10: 23-32 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.23 +[Abstract](191) +[PDF](173.6KB)
Abstract:
We started the study of the family of birational maps $(f_{\alpha,\beta})$ of $\mathbb{P}^2_\mathbb{C}$ in [12]. For $(\alpha,\beta)$ well chosen'' of modulus $1$, the centraliser of $f_{\alpha,\beta}$ is trivial, the topological entropy of $f_{\alpha,\beta}$ is $0$, and there exist two domains of linearisation: in the first one the closure of the orbit of a point is a torus, in the other one the closure of the orbit of a point is the union of two circles. On $\mathbb{P}^1_\mathbb{C}\times \mathbb{P}^1_\mathbb{C}$, any $f_{\alpha,\beta}$ can be viewed as a cocyle; using recent results about $\mathrm{SL}(2;\mathbb{C})$-cocycles ([1]), we determine the Lyapunov exponent of the cocyle associated to $f_{\alpha,\beta}$.
2016, 10: 33-79 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.33 +[Abstract](241) +[PDF](405.5KB)
Abstract:
We prove that every homogeneous flow on a finite-volume homogeneous manifold has countably many independent invariant distributions unless it is conjugate to a linear flow on a torus. We also prove that the same conclusion holds for every affine transformation of a homogenous space which is not conjugate to a toral translation. As a part of the proof, we have that any smooth partially hyperbolic flow on any compact manifold has countably many distinct minimal sets, hence countably many distinct ergodic probability measures. As a consequence, the Katok and Greenfield-Wallach conjectures hold in all of the above cases.
2016, 10: 81-111 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.81 +[Abstract](241) +[PDF](603.8KB)
Abstract:
We prove effective decay of certain multiple correlation coefficients for measure preserving, mixing Weyl chamber actions of semidirect products of semisimple groups with $G$-vector spaces. These estimates provide decay for actions in split semisimple groups of higher rank.
2016, 10: 113-134 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.113 +[Abstract](238) +[PDF](250.7KB)
Abstract:
We study the dynamics of the geodesic and horocycle flows of the unit tangent bundle $(\hat M, T^1\mathfrak{F})$ of a compact minimal lamination $(M,\mathfrak{F})$ by negatively curved surfaces. We give conditions under which the action of the affine group generated by the joint action of these flows is minimal and examples where this action is not minimal. In the first case, we prove that if $\mathfrak{F}$ has a leaf which is not simply connected, the horocyle flow is topologically transitive.
2016, 10: 135-172 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.135 +[Abstract](192) +[PDF](428.1KB)
Abstract:
We prove that any smooth action of $\mathbb{Z}^{m-1}$, $m\ge 3$, on an $m$-dimensional manifold that preserves a measure such that all non-identity elements of the suspension have positive entropy is essentially algebraic, i.e., isomorphic up to a finite permutation to an affine action on the torus or on its factor by $\pm\mathrm{Id}$. Furthermore this isomorphism has nice geometric properties; in particular, it is smooth in the sense of Whitney on a set whose complement has arbitrarily small measure. We further derive restrictions on topology of manifolds that may admit such actions, for example, excluding spheres and obtaining lower estimate on the first Betti number in the odd-dimensional case.
2016, 10: 173-174 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.173 +[Abstract](190) +[PDF](5152.2KB)
Abstract:
Professor Michael Brin of the University of Maryland endowed an international prize for outstanding work in the theory of dynamical systems and related areas. The prize is given biennially for specific mathematical achievements that appear as a single publication or a series thereof in refereed journals, proceedings or monographs.

2016, 10: 175-189 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.175 +[Abstract](308) +[PDF](409.8KB)
Abstract:
We review recent advances on ergodicity of partially and nonuniformly hyperbolic systems describing, in particular, important contributions of Federico Rodriguez Hertz and his collaborators.
2016, 10: 191-207 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.191 +[Abstract](209) +[PDF](204.6KB)
Abstract:
This paper is a survey about recent progress in measure rigidity and global rigidity of Anosov actions, and celebrates the profound contributions by Federico Rodriguez Hertz to rigidity in dynamical systems.
2016, 10: 209-228 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.209 +[Abstract](261) +[PDF](233.6KB)
Abstract:
We consider aperiodic wind-tree models and show that for a generic (in the sense of Baire) configuration the wind-tree dynamics is minimal in almost all directions and has a dense set of periodic points.
2016, 10: 229-254 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.229 +[Abstract](208) +[PDF](288.7KB)
Abstract:
Recently Mohammadi and Salehi-Golsefidy gave necessary and sufficient conditions under which certain translates of homogeneous measures converge, and they determined the limiting measures in the cases of convergence. The class of measures they considered includes the maximal horospherical measures. In this paper we prove the corresponding effective equidistribution results in the space of unimodular lattices. We also prove the corresponding results for probability measures with absolutely continuous densities in rank two and three. Then we address the problem of determining the error terms in two counting problems also considered by Mohammadi and Salehi-Golsefidy. In the first problem, we determine an error term for counting the number of lifts of a closed horosphere from an irreducible, finite-volume quotient of the space of positive definite $n\times n$ matrices of determinant one that intersect a ball with large radius. In the second problem, we determine a logarithmic error term for the Manin conjecture of a flag variety over $\mathbb{Q}$.
2016, 10: 255-286 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.255 +[Abstract](207) +[PDF](332.4KB)
Abstract:
We consider one-step cocycles of $2 \times 2$ matrices, and we are interested in their Lyapunov-optimizing measures, i.e., invariant probability measures that maximize or minimize a Lyapunov exponent. If the cocycle is dominated, that is, the two Lyapunov exponents are uniformly separated along all orbits, then Lyapunov-optimizing measures always exist and are characterized by their support. Under an additional hypothesis of nonoverlapping between the cones that characterize domination, we prove that the Lyapunov-optimizing measures have zero entropy. This conclusion certainly fails without the domination assumption, even for typical one-step $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$-cocycles; indeed we show that in the latter case there are measures of positive entropy with zero Lyapunov exponent.
2016, 10: 287-330 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.287 +[Abstract](205) +[PDF](411.0KB)
Abstract:
In this work we consider an ensemble of random $\mathbb{Z}^d$-shifts of finite type ($\mathbb{Z}^d$-SFTs) and prove several results concerning the behavior of typical systems with respect to emptiness, entropy, and periodic points. These results generalize statements made in [26] regarding the case $d=1$.
Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a finite set, and let $d \geq 1$. For $n$ in $\mathbb{N}$ and $\alpha$ in $[0,1]$, define a random subset $\omega$ of $\mathcal{A}^{[1,n]^d}$ by independently including each pattern in $\mathcal{A}^{[1,n]^d}$ with probability $\alpha$. Let $X_{\omega}$ be the (random) $\mathbb{Z}^d$-SFT built from the set $\omega$. For each $\alpha \in [0,1]$ and $n$ tending to infinity, we compute the limit of the probability that $X_{\omega}$ is empty, as well as the limiting distribution of entropy of $X_{\omega}$. Furthermore, we show that the probability of obtaining a nonempty system without periodic points tends to zero.
For $d>1$, the class of $\mathbb{Z}^d$-SFTs is known to contain strikingly different behavior than is possible within the class of $\mathbb{Z}$-SFTs. Nonetheless, the results of this work suggest a new heuristic: typical $\mathbb{Z}^d$-SFTs have similar properties to their $\mathbb{Z}$-SFT counterparts.
2016, 10: 331-338 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.331 +[Abstract](218) +[PDF](138.0KB)
Abstract:
We address the following question raised by M. Entov and L. Polterovich: given a continuous map $f:X\to X$ of a metric space $X$, closed subsets $A,B\subset X$, and an integer $n\geq 1$, when is it possible to find a continuous function $\theta:X\to\mathbb{R}$ such that $\theta f-\theta\leq 1, \quad \theta|A\leq 0, \quad\text{and}\quad \theta|B> n\,?$ To keep things as simple as possible, we solve the problem when $A$ is compact. The non-compact case will be treated in a later work.
2016, 10: 339-352 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.339 +[Abstract](245) +[PDF](203.8KB)
Abstract:
We discuss upper and lower bounds for the size of gaps in the length spectrum of negatively curved manifolds. For manifolds with algebraic generators for the fundamental group, we establish the existence of exponential lower bounds for the gaps. On the other hand, we show that the existence of arbitrarily small gaps is topologically generic: this is established both for surfaces of constant negative curvature (Theorem 3.1) and for the space of negatively curved metrics (Theorem 4.1). While arbitrarily small gaps are topologically generic, it is plausible that the gaps are not too small for almost every metric. One result in this direction is presented in Section 5.
2016, 10: 353-377 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.353 +[Abstract](184) +[PDF](603.8KB)
Abstract:
Let $f:\mathbb{CP}^2⇢\mathbb{CP}^2$ be a rational map with algebraic and topological degrees both equal to $d\geq 2$. Little is known in general about the ergodic properties of such maps. We show here, however, that for an open set of automorphisms $T:\mathbb{CP}^2\to\mathbb{CP}^2$, the perturbed map $T\circ f$ admits exactly two ergodic measures of maximal entropy $\log d$, one of saddle type and one of repelling type. Neither measure is supported in an algebraic curve, and $f_T$ is 'fully two dimensional' in the sense that it does not preserve any singular holomorphic foliation of $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^2$. In fact, absence of an invariant foliation extends to all $T$ outside a countable union of algebraic subsets of $Aut(\mathbb{P}^2)$. Finally, we illustrate all of our results in a more concrete particular instance connected with a two dimensional version of the well-known quadratic Chebyshev map.
2016, 10: 379-411 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.379 +[Abstract](214) +[PDF](314.2KB)
Abstract:
We prove a uniform Franks' lemma at second order for geodesic flows on a compact Riemannian manifold and apply the result in persistence theory. Our approach, which relies on techniques from geometric control theory, allows us to show that Mañé (i.e., conformal) perturbations of the metric are sufficient to achieve the result.
2016, 10: 413-437 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.413 +[Abstract](206) +[PDF](258.2KB)
Abstract:
We study the unitary boundary representation of a strongly transitive group acting on a right-angled hyperbolic building. We show its irreducibility. We do so by associating to such a representation a representation of a certain Hecke algebra, which is a deformation of the classical representation of a hyperbolic reflection group. We show that the associated Hecke algebra representation is irreducible.
2016, 10: 439-481 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.439 +[Abstract](339) +[PDF](375.5KB)
Abstract:
On any smooth compact connected manifold $M$ of dimension $m\geq 2$ admitting a smooth non-trivial circle action $\mathcal S = \left\{S_t\right\}_{t\in \mathbb{S}^1}$ and for every Liouville number $\alpha \in \mathbb{S}^1$ we prove the existence of a $C^\infty$-diffeomorphism $f \in \mathcal{A}_{\alpha} = \overline{\left\{h \circ S_{\alpha} \circ h^{-1} \;:\;h \in \text{Diff}^{\,\,\infty}\left(M,\nu\right)\right\}}^{C^\infty}$ with a good approximation of type $\left(h,h+1\right)$, a maximal spectral type disjoint with its convolutions and a homogeneous spectrum of multiplicity two for the Cartesian square $f\times f$. This answers a question of Fayad and Katok (10,[Problem 7.11]). The proof is based on a quantitative version of the approximation by conjugation-method with explicitly defined conjugation maps and tower elements.
Van Cyr and Bryna Kra
2016, 10: 483-495 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.483 +[Abstract](235) +[PDF](178.0KB)
Abstract:
The group of automorphisms of a symbolic dynamical system is countable, but often very large. For example, for a mixing subshift of finite type, the automorphism group contains isomorphic copies of the free group on two generators and the direct sum of countably many copies of $\mathbb{Z}$. In contrast, the group of automorphisms of a symbolic system of zero entropy seems to be highly constrained. Our main result is that the automorphism group of any minimal subshift of stretched exponential growth with exponent $<1/2$, is amenable (as a countable discrete group). For shifts of polynomial growth, we further show that any finitely generated, torsion free subgroup of Aut(X) is virtually nilpotent.
2016, 10: 497-509 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.497 +[Abstract](269) +[PDF](196.1KB)
Abstract:
Let $(M, \xi)$ be a compact contact 3-manifold and assume that there exists a contact form $\alpha_0$ on $(M, \xi)$ whose Reeb flow is Anosov. We show this implies that every Reeb flow on $(M, \xi)$ has positive topological entropy, answering a question raised in [2]. Our argument builds on previous work of the author [2] and recent work of Barthelmé and Fenley [4]. This result combined with the work of Foulon and Hasselblatt [13] is then used to obtain the first examples of hyperbolic contact 3-manifolds on which every Reeb flow has positive topological entropy.
2016, 10: 511-539 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.511 +[Abstract](216) +[PDF](272.2KB)
Abstract:
Given an area-preserving diffeomorphism of the closed unit disk which is a rotation near the boundary, one can naturally define an action'' function on the disk which agrees with the rotation number on the boundary. The Calabi invariant of the diffeomorphism is the average of the action function over the disk. Given a periodic orbit of the diffeomorphism, its mean action'' is defined to be the average of the action function over the orbit. We show that if the Calabi invariant is less than the boundary rotation number, then the infimum over periodic orbits of the mean action is less than or equal to the Calabi invariant. The proof uses a new filtration on embedded contact homology determined by a transverse knot, which may be of independent interest. (An analogue of this filtration can be defined for any other version of contact homology in three dimensions that counts holomorphic curves.)
2016, 10: 541-561 doi: 10.3934/jmd.2016.10.541 +[Abstract](328) +[PDF](331.3KB)
Abstract:
We show that an orientable pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism has vanishing Sah-Arnoux-Fathi invariant if and only if the minimal polynomial of its dilatation is not reciprocal. We relate this to works of Margalit-Spallone and Birman, Brinkmann and Kawamuro. Mainly, we use Veech's construction of pseudo-Anosov maps to give explicit pseudo-Anosov maps of vanishing Sah-Arnoux-Fathi invariant. In particular, we give a new infinite family of such maps in genus 3.

2016  Impact Factor: 0.706