Finite entropy actions of free groups,rigidity of stabilizers,and a Howe-Moore type phenomenon

We study a notion of entropy, called f-invariant entropy, introduced by Lewis Bowen for probability measure preserving actions of finitely generated free groups. In the degenerate case, the f-invariant entropy is -∞. In this paper, we investigate the qualitative consequences of an action having finite f-invariant entropy. We find three main properties of such actions. First, the stabilizers occurring in factors of such actions are highly restricted. Specifically, the stabilizer of almost every point must be either trivial or of finite index. Second, such actions are very chaotic in the sense that when the space is not essentially countable, every non-identity group element acts with infinite Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy. Finally, we show that such actions display behavior reminiscent of the Howe-Moore property. Specifically, if the action is ergodic, there exists an integer n such that for every non-trivial normal subgroup K, the number of K-ergodic components is at most n. Our results are based on a new formula for f-invariant entropy.     

Join of two graphs admits a nowhere-zero 3-flow

Let G be a graph, and λ the smallest integer for which G has a nowherezero λ-flow, i.e., an integer λ for which G admits a nowhere-zero λ-flow, but it does not admit a (λ ? 1)-flow. We denote the minimum flow number of G by Λ(G). In this paper we show that if G and H are two arbitrary graphs and G has no isolated vertex, then Λ(G ∨ H) ? 3 except two cases: (i) One of the graphs G and H is K ₂ and the other is 1-regular. (ii) H = K ₁ and G is a graph with at least one isolated vertex or a component whose every block is an odd cycle. Among other results, we prove that for every two graphs G and H with at least 4 vertices, Λ(G ∨ H) ? 3.     

Attractor minimal sets for cooperative and strongly convex delay differential systems

We study the skew-product semiflow induced by a family of convex and cooperative delay differential systems. Under some monotonicity assumptions, we obtain an ergodic representation for the upper Lyapunov exponent of a minimal subset. In addition, when eventually strong convexity at one point is assumed and there exist two completely strongly ordered minimal subsets K₁?_CK₂, we show that K₁ is an attractor subset which is a copy of the base. The long-time behaviour of every trajectory strongly ordered with K₂ is then deduced. Some examples of application of the theory are shown.     

Bernoulli factors that span a transformation

It is shown that every invertible ergodic transformation of positive entropy is spanned by three Bernoulli factors. Research supported by NSF Grant MCS 78-08738.     

Courants extrémaux et dynamique complexe

We construct extremal positive closed currents of any bidegree on the complex projective space Pk, which are not current of integration along irreducible analytic subsets. We apply these results to the dynamical study of some polynomial endomorphisms of Ck, for which we construct an ergodic measure of maximal entropy.     

Möbius disjointness for models of an ergodic system and beyond

Given a topological dynamical system (X, T) and an arithmetic function u: ? → ?, we study the strong MOMO property (relatively to u) which is a strong version of u-disjointness with all observable sequences in (X, T). It is proved that, given an ergodic measure-preserving system (Z, \(\mathcal{D}\), к, R),the strong MOMO propertly (relately to u) of a uniquely ergodic midel (X, T)of R yields all other uniquely ergodic midel of R to be u-disjiont. It follows that all uniquely ergodic models of: ergodic unipotent diffeomorphisms on nilmanifolds, discrete spectrum automorphisms, systems given by some substitutions of constant length (including the classical Thue—Viorse and Rudin—Shapiro substitutions), systems determined by Kakutani sequences are Möbius (and Liouville) disjoint. The validity of Sarnak5s conjecture implies the strong MOMO property relatively to μ in all zero entropy systems; in particular, it makes μ-disjointness uniform. The absence of the strong MOMO property in positive entropy systems is discussed and it is proved that, under the Chowla conjecture, a topological system has the strong MOMO property relatively to the Liouville function if and only if its topological entropy is zero.     

Dyadic equivalence to completely positive entropy

We show that every free ergodic action of of positive entropy is dyadically equivalent to an action with completely positive entropy.

     

Almost automorphic symbolic minimal sets without unique ergodicity

Given a metrizable monothetic groupG with generatorg and a suitable closed nowhere dense subsetC of positive Haar measure, we associate a natural compact metric space whose points are almost automorphic symbolic minimal sets. It is then shown that those minimal sets which have positive topological entropy and fail to be uniquely ergodic form a esidual set. The example due to P. Julius [2] of a Toeplitz sequence of positive entropy which, is uniquely ergodic shows that the “residual” conclusion is sharp.     

The first return time properties of an irrational rotation

If an ergodic system has positive entropy, then the Shannon-McMillan-Breiman theorem provides a relationship between the entropy and the size of an atom of the iterated partition. The system also has Ornstein-Weiss' first return time property, which offers a method of computing the entropy via an orbit. We consider irrational rotations which are the simplest model of zero entropy. We prove that almost every irrational rotation has the analogous properties if properly normalized. However there are some irrational rotations that exhibit different behavior.

     

Construction of curious minimal uniquely ergodic homeomorphisms on manifolds: the Denjoy-Rees technique

In [Rees, M., A minimal positive entropy homeomorphism of the 2-torus, J. London Math. Soc. 23 (1981) 537-550], Mary Rees has constructed a minimal homeomorphism of the n-torus with positive topological entropy. This homeomorphism f is obtained by enriching the dynamics of an irrational rotation R. We improve Rees construction, allowing to start with any homeomorphism R instead of an irrational rotation and to control precisely the measurable dynamics of f. This yields in particular the following result: Any compact manifold of dimensiond?2which carries a minimal uniquely ergodic homeomorphism also carries a minimal uniquely ergodic homeomorphism with positive topological entropy.More generally, given some homeomorphism R of a compact manifold and some homeomorphism hC of a Cantor set, we construct a homeomorphism f which “looks like” R from the topological viewpoint and “looks like” R×hC from the measurable viewpoint. This construction can be seen as a partial answer to the following realisability question: which measurable dynamical systems are represented by homeomorphisms on manifolds?     

On the measure with maximal entropy for the Teichmüller flow on the moduli space of Abelian differentials

The Teichmüller flow g _t on the moduli space of Abelian differentials with zeros of given orders on a Riemann surface of a given genus is considered. This flow is known to preserve a finite absolutely continuous measure and is ergodic on every connected component ? of the moduli space. The main result of the paper is that µ/µ(?) is the unique measure with maximal entropy for the restriction of g _t to ?. The proof is based on the symbolic representation of g _t .     

Geometry and entropy of generalized rotation sets

For a continuous map f on a compact metric space we study the geometry and entropy of the generalized rotation set Rot(Φ). Here Φ = (?₁, ..., ? _m ) is a m-dimensional continuous potential and Rot(Φ) is the set of all µ-integrals of Φ and µ runs over all f-invariant probability measures. It is easy to see that the rotation set is a compact and convex subset of ? ^m . We study the question if every compact and convex set is attained as a rotation set of a particular set of potentials within a particular class of dynamical systems. We give a positive answer in the case of subshifts of finite type by constructing for every compact and convex set K in ? ^m a potential Φ = Φ(K) with Rot(Φ) = K. Next, we study the relation between Rot(Φ) and the set of all statistical limits Rot _Pt (Φ). We show that in general these sets differ but also provide criteria that guarantee Rot(Φ) = Rot _Pt (Φ). Finally, we study the entropy function w ? H(w),w ∈ Rot(Φ). We establish a variational principle for the entropy function and show that for certain non-uniformly hyperbolic systems H(w) is determined by the growth rate of those hyperbolic periodic orbits whose Φ-integrals are close to w. We also show that for systems with strong thermodynamic properties (sub-shifts of finite type, hyperbolic systems and expansive homeomorphisms with specification, etc.) the entropy function w ? H(w) is real-analytic in the interior of the rotation set.     

Nowhere-zero integral chains and flows in bidirected graphs

General results on nowhere-zero integral chain groups are proved and then specialized to the case of flows in bidirected graphs. For instance, it is proved that every 4-connected (resp. 3-connected and balanced triangle free) bidirected graph which has at least an unbalanced circuit and a nowhere-zero flow can be provided with a nowhere-zero integral flow with absolute values less than 18 (resp. 30). This improves, for these classes of graphs, Bouchet's 216-flow theorem (J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 34 (1982), 279–292). We also approach his 6-flow conjecture by proving it for a class of 3-connected graphs. Our method is inspired by Seymour's proof of the 6-flow theorem (J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 30 (1981), 130–136), and makes use of new connectedness properties of signed graphs.     

Six-flows on almost balanced signed graphs

In 1983, Bouchet conjectured that every flow-admissible signed graph admits a nowhere-zero 6-flow. By Seymour's 6-flow theorem, Bouchet's conjecture holds for signed graphs with all edges positive. Recently, Rollová et al proved that every flow-admissible signed cubic graph with two negative edges admits a nowhere-zero 7-flow, and admits a nowhere-zero 6-flow if its underlying graph either contains a bridge, or is 3-edge-colorable, or is critical. In this paper, we improve and extend these results, and confirm Bouchet's conjecture for signed graphs with frustration number at most two, where the frustration number of a signed graph is the smallest number of vertices whose deletion leaves a balanced signed graph.     

Positivity of the K-entropy on non-abelian K-flows

A non-commutative extension of certain aspects of classical probability theory is presented in such a manner that the notion of Kolmogorov entropy can be extended to a large class of non-classical dynamical systems. In particular, the generalized K-entropy so defined is shown to be strictly positive on the class of non-abelian K-flows.     

Density-equicontinuity and Density-sensitivity

In this paper we introduce the notions of (Banach) density-equicontinuity and densitysensitivity. On the equicontinuity side, it is shown that a topological dynamical system is densityequicontinuous if and only if it is Banach density-equicontinuous. On the sensitivity side, we introduce the notion of density-sensitive tuple to characterize the multi-variant version of density-sensitivity. We further look into the relation of sequence entropy tuple and density-sensitive tuple both in measuretheoretical and topological setting, and it turns out that every sequence entropy tuple for some ergodic measure on an invertible dynamical system is density-sensitive for this measure; and every topological sequence entropy tuple in a dynamical system having an ergodic measure with full support is densitysensitive for this measure.     

A note on Kolmogorov complexity and entropy

It is shown that the Kolmogorov complexity per symbol of an n-sequence from a stationary ergodic source of finite alphabet approaches the entropy rate of the source in probability as n becomes large.     

Flows, flow-pair covers and cycle double covers

In this paper, some earlier results by Fleischner [H. Fleischner, Bipartizing matchings and Sabidussi’s compatibility conjecture, Discrete Math. 244 (2002) 77-82] about edge-disjoint bipartizing matchings of a cubic graph with a dominating circuit are generalized for graphs without the assumption of the existence of a dominating circuit and 3-regularity. A pair of integer flows (D,f₁) and (D,f₂) is an (h,k)-flow parity-pair-cover of G if the union of their supports covers the entire graph; f₁ is an h-flow and f₂ is a k-flow, and . Then G admits a nowhere-zero 6-flow if and only if G admits a (4,3)-flow parity-pair-cover; and G admits a nowhere-zero 5-flow if G admits a (3,3)-flow parity-pair-cover. A pair of integer flows (D,f₁) and (D,f₂) is an (h,k)-flow even-disjoint-pair-cover of G if the union of their supports covers the entire graph, f₁ is an h-flow and f₂ is a k-flow, and for each {i,j}={1,2}. Then G has a 5-cycle double cover if G admits a (4,4)-flow even-disjoint-pair-cover; and G admits a (3,3)-flow parity-pair-cover if G has an orientable 5-cycle double cover.     

Dimension theory of iterated function systems

Let {S_i} be an iterated function system (IFS) on ?^d with attractor K. Let (Σ, σ) denote the one‐sided full shift over the alphabet {1, …, ??}. We define the projection entropy function h_π on the space of invariant measures on Σ associated with the coding map π : Σ → K and develop some basic ergodic properties about it. This concept turns out to be crucial in the study of dimensional properties of invariant measures on K. We show that for any conformal IFS (respectively, the direct product of finitely many conformal IFSs), without any separation condition, the projection of an ergodic measure under π is always exactly dimensional and its Hausdorff dimension can be represented as the ratio of its projection entropy to its Lyapunov exponent (respectively, the linear combination of projection entropies associated with several coding maps). Furthermore, for any conformal IFS and certain affine IFSs, we prove a variational principle between the Hausdorff dimension of the attractors and that of projections of ergodic measures. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Intrinsic ergodicity beyond specification: β-shifts, S-gap shifts, and their factors

We give sufficient conditions for a shift space (Σ, σ) to be intrinsically ergodic, along with sufficient conditions for every subshift factor of Σ to be intrinsically ergodic. As an application, we show that every subshift factor of a β-shift is intrinsically ergodic, which answers an open question included in Mike Boyle’s article “Open problems in symbolic dynamics”. We obtain the same result for S-gap shifts, and describe an application of our conditions to more general coded systems. One novelty of our approach is the introduction of a new version of the specification property that is well adapted to the study of symbolic spaces with a non-uniform structure.