On phase transitions for subshifts of finite type

It has recently been shown that a strongly irreducible subshift of finite type in two or more dimensions may have more than one measure of maximal entropy. In this paper we obtain some results on when (i.e. for what kinds of subshifts of finite type) this happens, and when it does not. In particular, we show that the parameter of a certain subshift of finite type introduced by Burton and Steif has a critical value, below which we have a unique measure of maximal entropy, and above which we have non-uniqueness.     

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.     

Field-dependent homological behavior of finite dimensional algebras

It is shown that the little finitistic dimension of a finite dimensional algebra, i.e., the supremum of the finite projective dimensions attained on finitely generated modules, is not necessarily attained on a cyclic module. In general, arbitrarily high numbers of generators are required. Moreover, it is demonstrated that this phenomenon may depend on the base fieldk. In fact, for each integerd>-3, there exists a quiver Γ with a set ρ of paths such that the little finitistic dimension of the finite dimensional algebrakΓ/<ρ> is attained on a cyclic module precisely when |k|≥d. By contrast, the global dimension of finite dimensional monomial relation algebras does not depend on the base field. This research was partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.     

Convolution Estimates and Model Surfaces of Low Codimension

For k≥d/2 we give examples of measures on k-surfaces in ℝ ^d . These measures satisfy convolution estimates which are nearly optimal. The author was supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0552041.     

Totally dissipative measures for the shift and conformal σ-finite measures for the stable holonomies

In this paper we investigate some results of ergodic theory with infinite measures for a subshift of finite type. We give an explicit way to construct σ-finite measures which are quasi-invariant by the stable holonomy and equivalent to the conditional measures of some σ-invariant measure. These σ-invariant measures are totally dissipative, σ-finite but satisfy a Birkhoff Ergodic-like Theorem. The constructions are done for the symbolic case, but can be extended for uniformly hyperbolic flows or diffeomorphisms.     

Large entropy measures for endomorphisms of ℂℙ k

Let f be a holomorphic endomorphism of ?? ^k . We construct by using coding techniques a class of ergodic measures as limits of non-uniform probability measures on preimages of points. We show that they have large metric entropy, close to log d ^k . We establish for them strong stochastic properties and prove the positivity of their Lyapunov exponents. Since they have large entropy, those measures are supported in the support of the maximal entropy measure of f. They in particular provide lower bounds for the Hausdorff dimension of the Julia set.     

A Centrally Symmetric Version of the Cyclic Polytope

We define a centrally symmetric analogue of the cyclic polytope and study its facial structure. We conjecture that our polytopes provide asymptotically the largest number of faces in all dimensions among all centrally symmetric polytopes with n vertices of a given even dimension d=2k when d is fixed and n grows. For a fixed even dimension d=2k and an integer 1≤j<k we prove that the maximum possible number of j-dimensional faces of a centrally symmetric d-dimensional polytope with n vertices is at least for some c _j (d)>0 and at most as n grows. We show that c ₁(d)≥1−(d−1)⁻¹ and conjecture that the bound is best possible. Research of A. Barvinok partially supported by NSF grant DMS 0400617. Research of I. Novik partially supported by Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and NSF grant DMS-0500748.     

Universal minimal topological dynamical systems

Rokhlin (1963) showed that any aperiodic dynamical system with finite entropy admits a countable generating partition. Krieger (1970) showed that aperiodic ergodic systems with entropy < log a, admit a generating partition with no more than a sets. In Symbolic Dynamics terminology, these results can be phrased— ℕ^ℤ is a universal system in the category of aperiodic systems, and [a]^ℤ is a universal system for aperiodic ergodic systems with entropy < log a. Weiss ([We89], 1989) presented a Minimal system, on a Compact space (a subshift of ) which is universal for aperiodic systems. In this work we present a joint generalization of both results: given ɛ, there exists a minimal subshift of [a]^ℤ, universal for aperiodic ergodic systems with entropy < log a − ɛ.     

An acyclicity theorem for cell complexes ind dimension

LetC be a cell complex ind-dimensional Euclidean space whose faces are obtained by orthogonal projection of the faces of a convex polytope ind+ 1 dimensions. For example, the Delaunay triangulation of a finite point set is such a cell complex. This paper shows that the in_front/behind relation defined for the faces ofC with respect to any fixed viewpointx is acyclic. This result has applications to hidden line/surface removal and other problems in computational geometry.Research reported in this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-8714565     

Symbolic representations of nonexpansive group automorphisms

Ifα is an irreducible nonexpansive ergodic automorphism of a compact abelian groupX (such as an irreducible nonhyperbolic ergodic toral automorphism), thenα has no finite or infinite state Markov partitions, and there are no nontrivial continuous embeddings of Markov shifts inX. In spite of this we are able to construct a symbolic spaceV and a class of shift-invariant probability measures onV each of which corresponds to anα-invariant probability measure onX. Moreover, everyα-invariant probability measure onX arises essentially in this way. The last part of the paper deals with the connection between the two-sided beta-shiftV _β arising from a Salem numberβ and the nonhyperbolic ergodic toral automorphismα arising from the companion matrix of the minimal polynomial ofβ, and establishes an entropy-preserving correspondence between a class of shift-invariant probability measures onV _β and certainα-invariant probability measures onX. This correspondence is much weaker than, but still quite closely modelled on, the connection between the two-sided beta-shifts defined by Pisot numbers and the corresponding hyperbolic ergodic toral automorphisms.     

On the Classification of Cartan Actions

We study higher-rank Cartan actions on compact manifolds preserving an ergodic measure with full support. In particular, we classify actions by with k ≥ 3 whose one-parameter groups act transitively as well as nondegenerate totally nonsymplectic -actions for k ≥ 3. The first author is supported in part by NSF grants DMS-0140513. The second author is supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0203735. Received: July 2005 Revision: March 2006 Accepted: March 2006     

An approximate Dirac-type theorem for k-uniform hypergraphs

A k-uniform hypergraph is hamiltonian if for some cyclic ordering of its vertex set, every k consecutive vertices form an edge. In 1952 Dirac proved that if the minimum degree in an n-vertex graph is at least n/2 then the graph is hamiltonian. We prove an approximate version of an analogous result for uniform hypergraphs: For every K ≥ 3 and γ > 0, and for all n large enough, a sufficient condition for an n-vertex k-uniform hypergraph to be hamiltonian is that each (k − 1)-element set of vertices is contained in at least (1/2 + γ)n edges. Research supported by NSF grant DMS-0300529. Research supported by KBN grant 2P03A 015 23 and N201036 32/2546. Part of research performed at Emory University, Atlanta. Research supported by NSF grant DMS-0100784.     

Chaos for Subshifts of Finite Type

This paper deals with chaos for subshifts of finite type. We show that for any subshift of finite type determined by an irreducible and aperiodic matrix, there is a finitely chaotic set with full Hausdorff dimension. Moreover, for any subshift of finite type determined by a matrix, we point out that the cases including positive topological entropy, distributional chaos, chaos and Devaney chaos are mutually equivalent.     

Bounding the piercing number

It is shown that for everyk and everyp≥q≥d+1 there is ac=c(k,p,q,d)<∞ such that the following holds. For every familyℋ whose members are unions of at mostk compact convex sets inR ^d in which any set ofp members of the family contains a subset of cardinalityq with a nonempty intersection there is a set of at mostc points inR ^d that intersects each member ofℋ. It is also shown that for everyp≥q≥d+1 there is aC=C(p,q,d)<∞ such that, for every family of compact, convex sets inR ^d so that among andp of them someq have a common hyperplane transversal, there is a set of at mostC hyperplanes that together meet all the members of . This research was supported in part by a United States-Israel BSF Grant and by the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences.     

On intrinsic ergodicity of piecewise monotonic transformations with positive entropy

We consider a class of piecewise monotonically increasing functionsf on the unit intervalI. We want to determine the measures with maximal entropy for these transformations. In part I we construct a shift-space Σ _f ⁺ isomorphic to (I, f) generalizing the \-shift and another shift Σ _M over an infinite alphabet, which is of finite type given by an infinite transition matrixM. Σ _M has the same set of maximal measures as (I, f) and we are able to compute the maximal measures of maximal measures of. In part II we try to bring these results back to (I, f). There are only finitely many ergodic maximal measures for (I, f). The supports of two of them have at most finitely many points in common. If (I, f) is topologically transitive it has unique maximal measure.     

Mixing properties of the generalized T, T-1-process

Consider a general random walk on ℤ^d together with an i.i.d. random coloring of ℤ^d. TheT, T ^-1-process is the one where time is indexed by ℤ, and at each unit of time we see the step taken by the walk together with the color of the newly arrived at location. S. Kalikow proved that ifd = 1 and the random walk is simple, then this process is not Bernoulli. We generalize his result by proving that it is not Bernoulli ind = 2, Bernoulli but not Weak Bernoulli ind = 3 and 4, and Weak Bernoulli ind ≥ 5. These properties are related to the intersection behavior of the past and the future of simple random walk. We obtain similar results for general random walks on ℤ^d, leading to an almost complete classification. For example, ind = 1, if a step of sizex has probability proportional to l/|x|^α (x ⊋ 0), then theT, T ^-1-process is not Bernoulli when α ≥2, Bernoulli but not Weak Bernoulli when 3/2 ≤α < 2, and Weak Bernoulli when 1 < α < 3/2. Research partially carried out while a guest of the Department of Mathematics, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden in January 1996. Research supported by grants from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council and from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.     

Funny rank-one weak mixing for nonsingular Abelian actions

We construct funny rank-one infinite measure preserving free actionsT of a countable Abelian groupG satisfying each of the following properties: (1)T _g1×…×T_gk is ergodic for each finite sequenceg ₁,…,g _k ofG-elements of infinite order, (2)T×T is nonconservative, (3)T×T is nonergodic but allk-fold Cartesian products are conservative, and theL ^∞-spectrum ofT is trivial, (4) for eachg of infinite order, allk-fold Cartesian products ofT _g are ergodic, butT _2g×T_g is nonconservative. A topological version of this theorem holds. Moreover, given an AT-flowW, we construct nonsingularG-actionsT with similar properties and such that the associated flow ofT isW. Orbit theory is used in an essential way here. The work was supported in part by INTAS 97-1843 and CRDF grant UM1-2092.     

Smooth interval maps have symbolic extensions

We prove that if X denotes the interval or the circle then every transformation T:X→X of class C ^r , where r>1 is not necessarily an integer, admits a symbolic extension, i.e., every such transformation is a topological factor of a subshift over a finite alphabet. This is done using the theory of entropy structure. For such transformations we control the entropy structure by providing an upper bound, in terms of Lyapunov exponents, of local entropy in the sense of Newhouse of an ergodic measure ν near an invariant measure μ (the antarctic theorem). This bound allows us to estimate the so-called symbolic extension entropy function on invariant measures (the main theorem), and as a consequence, to estimate the topological symbolic extension entropy; i.e., a number such that there exists a symbolic extension with topological entropy arbitrarily close to that number. This last estimate coincides, in dimension 1, with a conjecture stated by Downarowicz and Newhouse [13, Conjecture 1.2]. The passage from the antarctic theorem to the main theorem is applicable to any topological dynamical system, not only to smooth interval or circle maps.     

Continuum Schrödinger Operators Associated With Aperiodic Subshifts

We study Schrödinger operators on the real line whose potentials are generated by an underlying ergodic subshift over a finite alphabet and a rule that replaces symbols by compactly supported potential pieces. We first develop the standard theory that shows that the spectrum and the spectral type are almost surely constant and that identifies the almost sure absolutely continuous spectrum with the essential closure of the set of energies with vanishing Lyapunov exponent. Using results of Damanik–Lenz and Klassert–Lenz–Stollmann, we also show that the spectrum is a Cantor set of zero Lebesgue measure if the subshift satisfies the Boshernitzan condition and the potentials are aperiodic and irreducible. We then study the case of the Fibonacci subshift in detail and prove results for the local Hausdorff dimension of the spectrum at a given energy in terms of the value of the associated Fricke–Vogt invariant. These results are elucidated for some simple choices of the local potential pieces, such as piecewise constant ones and local point interactions. In the latter special case, our results explain the occurrence of so-called pseudo bands, which have been pointed out in the physics literature.     

Asymptotic independence of maximum waiting times for increasing alphabet

For everyk≥1 consider the waiting time until each pattern of lengthk over a fixed alphabet of sizen appears at least once in an infinite sequence of independent, uniformly distributed random letters. Lettingn→∞ we determine the limiting finite dimensional joint distributions of these waiting times after suitable normalization and provide an estimate for the rate of convergence. It will turn out that these waiting times are getting independent. Research supported by the Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research, Grant No. 1905.