Mixing rank-one actions of locally compact Abelian groups

Using techniques related to the (C,F)-actions we construct explicitly mixing rank-one (by cubes) actions T of G=Rd₁×Zd₂ for any pair of non-negative integers d₁, d₂. It is also shown that h(Tg)=0 for each g∈G.     

Entropy Theory from the Orbital Point of View

 Inspired by [17], we develop an orbital approach to the entropy theory for actions of countable amenable groups. This is applied to extend – with new short proofs – the recent results about uniform mixing of actions with completely positive entropy [17], Pinsker factors and the relative disjointness problems [10], Abramov–Rokhlin entropy addition formula [19], etc. Unlike the cited papers our work is independent of the standard machinery developed by Ornstein–Weiss [14] or Kieffer [12]. We do not use non-orbital tools like the Rokhlin lemma, the Shannon–McMillan theorem, castle analysis, joining techniques for amenable actions, etc. which play an essential role in [17], [19] and [10]. (Received 23 October 2000)     

Invariant Cocycles Have Abelian Ranges

 Let R be a discrete nonsingular equivalence relation on a standard probability space , and let V be an ergodic strongly asymptotically central automorphism of R. We prove that every V-invariant cocycle with values in a Polish group G takes values in an abelian subgroup of G. The hypotheses of this result are satisfied, for example, if A is a finite set, a closed, shift-invariant subset, V is the shift, μ a shift-invariant and ergodic probability measure on X, the two-sided tail-equivalence relation on X, a shift-invariant subrelation which is μ-nonsingular, and a shift-invariant cocycle. (Received 15 September 2001)     

On the number of halving planes

LetS ³ be ann-set in general position. A plane containing three of the points is called a halving plane if it dissectsS into two parts of equal cardinality. It is proved that the number of halving planes is at mostO(n ^2.998).As a main tool, for every setY ofn points in the plane a setN of sizeO(n ⁴) is constructed such that the points ofN are distributed almost evenly in the triangles determined byY.Research supported partly by the Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research grant No. 1812     

Periodic boundary value problems of second-order impulsive differential equations

This paper discusses periodic boundary value problems of second-order impulsive differential equations. By using Schaeffer’s fixed-point theorem and monotone iterative technique, some existence results are obtained.     

Finitary isomorphism of some renewal processes to Bernoulli schemes

Using the marker and filler methods of Keane and Smorodinsky, we prove that entropy is a complete finitary isomorphism invariant for r-processes. It is conjectured that entropy is a complete finitary isomorphism invariant for finitary factors of Bernoulli schemes. We present a weaker version of this conjecture with hope that its proof is more attainable with present methods. In doing so, we define a one-way finitary isomorphism and prove one-way finitary results for random walks. We will also extend the marker and filler methods of Keane and Smorodinsky to a class of countable state processes.     

Geometry of expanding absolutely continuous invariant measures and the liftability problem

We show that for a large class of maps on manifolds of arbitrary finite dimension, the existence of a Gibbs–Markov–Young structure (with Lebesgue as the reference measure) is a necessary as well as sufficient condition for the existence of an invariant probability measure which is absolutely continuous measure (with respect to Lebesgue) and for which all Lyapunov exponents are positive.     

The asymptotically additive topological pressure on the irregular set for asymptotically additive potentials

Given a continuous dynamical system (X,T) with the specification property, and a sequence of asymptotically additive continuous functions, we consider the irregular set for it and show that this set is either empty or carries full asymptotically additive topological pressure.     

Spectral Properties of Interval Exchange Maps

 In [7], Nogueira and Rudolph proved that for irreducible permutations not of rotation class almost every (a.e.) interval exchange transformation (i.e.t.) is topological weak mixing. It is conjectured that the claim holds if topological weak mixing is replaced by weak mixing. Here we study the behaviour of eigenfunctions of i.e.t. Our analysis gives alternative proofs of results due to Katok and Stepin [4] and Veech [10]: for certain permutations a.e. i.e.t. is weak mixing and for irreducible permutations a.e. i.e.t. is totally ergodic. (Received 1 February 2001)     

Gibbs–Markov–Young structures with (stretched) exponential tail for partially hyperbolic attractors

In this work we extend the results obtained by Gouëzel in [12] to partially hyperbolic attractors. We study a forward invariant set K on a Riemannian manifold M   whose tangent space splits as dominated decomposition _TKM=E^cu⊕E^s$T_{K}M=E^{cu}\oplus E^s$, for which the center-unstable direction E^cu$E^{cu}$ is non-uniformly expanding on some local unstable disk. We prove that the (stretched) exponential decay of recurrence times for an induced scheme can be deduced under the assumption of (stretched) exponential decay of the time that typical points need to achieve some uniform expanding in the center-unstable direction. As an application of our results we obtain exponential decay of correlations and exponential large deviations for a class of partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms considered in [1].     

Area preserving analytic flows with dense orbits

The aim of this paper is to give sufficient conditions on area-preserving flows that guarantee the existence of dense orbits. We also answer a question by M.D. Hirsch [M.D. Hirsch, Dense recurrence in area-preserving flows on surfaces, Nonlinearity 12 (1999) 1545-1553]. The results of this work are a generalization of the ones in [M.D. Hirsch, Dense recurrence in area-preserving flows on surfaces, Nonlinearity 12 (1999) 1545-1553] and [H. Marzougui, Area preserving flows with a dense orbit, Nonlinearity 15 (2002) 1379-1384].     

On a Morse conjecture for analytic flows on compact surfaces

The aim of this paper is to prove a Morse conjecture; in particular it is shown that a topologically transitive analytic flow on a compact surface is metrically transitive. We also build smooth topologically transitive flows on surfaces which are not metrically transitive.     

Measurable dynamics of maps on profinite groups

We study the measurable dynamics of transformations on profinite groups, in particular of those which factor through sufficiently many of the projection maps; these maps generalize the 1-Lipschitz maps on _p.     

Variations on the theme of repeated distances

We give an asymptotically sharp estimate for the error term of the maximum number of unit distances determined byn points in ^{d, d}4. We also give asymptotically tight upper bounds on the total number of occurrences of the favourite distances fromn points in ^{d, d}4. Related results are proved for distances determined byn disjoint compact convex sets in ².At the time this paper was written, both authors were visiting the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology.     

Spherical containment and the Minkowski dimension of partial orders

The recent work on circle orders generalizes to higher dimensional spheres. As spherical containment is equivalent to causal precedence in Minkowski space, we define the Minkowski dimension of a poset to be the dimension of the minimal Minkowski space into which the poset can be embedded; this isd if the poset can be represented by containment with spheresS ^d–2 and of no lower dimension. Comparing this dimension with the standard dimension of partial orders we prove that they are identical in dimension two but not in higher dimensions, while their irreducible configurations are the same in dimensions two and three. Moreover, we show that there are irreducible configurations for arbitrarily large Minkowski dimension, thus providing a lower bound for the Minkowski dimension of partial orders.     

Semicocycle extensions and the stroboscopic property

We indicate a large class of almost 1-1 extensions over minimal systems, which do not possess the stroboscopic property, as defined by Misiurewicz and studied by Jimenez and Snoha [Topology Appl. 129 (2003) 301-316]. Sturmian flows and all Toeplitz flows belong to this class. This generalizes a theorem of [Topology Appl. 129 (2003) 301-316] for Sturmian flows. Our result allows to easily construct minimal weakly mixing systems without the stroboscopic property, which answers in the negative a question posed in [Topology Appl. 129 (2003) 301-316]. Finally we prove that even the strong stroboscopic property does not imply the stroboscopic property for induced (first return time) systems.     

The Adjoint Action of an Expansive Algebraic -Action

 Let , and let α be an expansive -action by continuous automorphisms of a compact abelian group X with completely positive entropy. Then the group of homoclinic points of α is countable and dense in X, and the restriction of α to the α-invariant subgroup is a -action by automorphisms of . By duality, there exists a -action by automorphisms of the compact abelian group : this action is called the adjoint action of α. We prove that is again expansive and has completely positive entropy, and that α and are weakly algebraically equivalent, i.e. algebraic factors of each other. A -action α by automorphisms of a compact abelian group X is reflexive if the -action on the compact abelian group adjoint to is algebraically conjugate to α. We give an example of a non-reflexive expansive -action α with completely positive entropy, but prove that the third adjoint is always algebraically conjugate to . Furthermore, every expansive and ergodic -action α is reflexive. The last section contains a brief discussion of adjoints of certain expansive algebraic -actions with zero entropy. Received 11 June 2001; in revised form 29 November 2001     

Spatial complexity in multi-layer cellular neural networks

This study investigates the complexity of the global set of output patterns for one-dimensional multi-layer cellular neural networks with input. Applying labeling to the output space produces a sofic shift space. Two invariants, namely spatial entropy and dynamical zeta function, can be exactly computed by studying the induced sofic shift space. This study gives sofic shift a realization through a realistic model. Furthermore, a new phenomenon, the broken of symmetry of entropy, is discovered in multi-layer cellular neural networks with input.     

Gibbs-Markov structures and limit laws for partially hyperbolic attractors with mostly expanding central direction

We consider a partially hyperbolic set K on a Riemannian manifold M whose tangent space splits as TKM=Ecu⊕Es, for which the center-unstable direction Ecu expands non-uniformly on some local unstable disk. We show that under these assumptions f induces a Gibbs-Markov structure. Moreover, the decay of the return time function can be controlled in terms of the time typical points need to achieve some uniform expanding behavior in the center-unstable direction. As an application of the main result we obtain certain rates for decay of correlations, large deviations, an almost sure invariance principle and the validity of the central limit theorem.