For the solid torus V = S1 × and a C1 embedding f: V → V given by with dϕ/dt > 1, 0 < λi(t) < 1 the attractor Λ = ∩i = 0∞fi(V) is a solenoid, and for each disk D(t) = {t} × (t ∈ S1) the intersection Λ(t) = Λ ∩ D(t) is a Cantor set. It is the aim of the paper to find conditions under which the Hausdorff dimension of Λ(t) is independent of t and determined by where the real numbers pi are characterized by the condition that the pressure of the function log : S1 → ℝ with respect to the expanding mapping ϕ: S1 → S1 becomes zero. (There are two further characterizations of these numbers.)

It is proved that (0.1) holds provided λ1, λ2 are sufficiently small and Λ satisfies a condition called intrinsic transverseness. Then it is shown that in the C1 space of all embeddings f with sup λi > Θ−2 (Θ the mapping degree of ϕ: S1 → S1) all those f which have an intrinsically transverse attractor Λ form an open and dense subset.

Using the orbital approach to the entropy theory we extend from \mathbb{Z}-actions to general countable amenable group actions T (or provide new short proofs for) the following results: (1) the relative and absolute Krieger Theorem about finite generating partitions (and its infinite Rokhlin counterpart in the case h(T)=\infty); (2) the relative and absolute Sinai Theorem about Bernoullian factors; (3) the Thouvenot Theorem that every intermediate factor of a relatively Bernoullian action is also relatively Bernoullian; (4) the Thouvenot Theorem that a factor of T with the strong Pinsker property enjoys this property; (5) the Smorodinsky–Thouvenot Theorem that T can be spanned by three Bernoullian factors; (6) the Ornstein–Weiss isomorphism theory for Bernoullian actions of the same entropy (provided that they possess generating partitions with at least three elements); and (7) there are uncountably many non-equivalent completely positive entropy extensions of T of the same relative entropy.

In proving these theorems, we were able to bypass the machinery of Orstein and Weiss except for the Rokhlin lemma. It is shown that the language of orbit equivalence relations and their cocycles (unlike the standard dynamical one) is well suited for the inducing operation needed to settle (1), (5) and (6).

This article addresses some open questions about the relations between the topological weak mixing property and the transitivity of the map f×f2×⋯×fm, where f:X→X is a topological dynamical system on a compact metric space. The theorem stating that a weakly mixing and strongly transitive system is Δ-transitive is extended to a non-invertible case with a simple proof. Two examples are constructed, answering the questions posed by Moothathu [Diagonal points having dense orbit. Colloq. Math. 120(1) (2010), 127–138]. The first one is a multi-transitive non-weakly mixing system, and the second one is a weakly mixing non-multi-transitive system. The examples are special spacing shifts. The latter shows that the assumption of minimality in the multiple recurrence theorem cannot be replaced by weak mixing.

A function on a discrete group is weakly combable if its discrete derivative with respect to a combing can be calculated by a finite-state automaton. A weakly combable function is bicombable if it is Lipschitz in both the left- and right-invariant word metrics. Examples of bicombable functions on word-hyperbolic groups include:

1. (1) homomorphisms to ℤ;

2. (2) word length with respect to a finite generating set;

3. (3) most known explicit constructions of quasimorphisms (e.g. the Epstein–Fujiwara counting quasimorphisms).

Let (X,T) be a topologically transitive dynamical system. We show that if there is a subsystem (Y,T) of (X,T) such that (X×Y,T×T) is transitive, then (X,T) is strongly chaotic in the sense of Li and Yorke. We then show that many of the known sufficient conditions in the literature, as well as a few new results, are corollaries of this statement. In fact, the kind of chaotic behavior we deduce in these results is a much stronger variant of Li–Yorke chaos which we call uniform chaos. For minimal systems we show, among other results, that uniform chaos is preserved by extensions and that a minimal system which is not uniformly chaotic is PI.

We consider G (Galois) coverings of Axiom A flows (restricted to basic sets) and prove an analogue of Chebotarev's theorem. The theorem provides an asymptotic formula for the number of closed orbits whose Frobenius class is a given conjugacy class in G. An application answers a question raised by J. Plante. The basic method is then extended to compact group extensions and applied to frame bundle flows defined on manifolds of variable negative curvature.

It is not known in general whether any mixing sofic system is the limit set of some one-dimensional cellular automaton. We address two aspects of this question. We prove first that any mixing almost of finite type (AFT) sofic system with a receptive fixed point is the limit set of a cellular automaton, under which it is attained in finite time. The AFT condition is not necessary: we also give examples of non-AFT sofic systems having the same properties. Finally, we show that near Markov sofic systems (a subclass of AFT sofic systems) cannot be obtained as limit sets of cellular automata at infinity.

Let $(E,{\cal A},\mu,T)$ be a dynamical system and let $\Phi$ be a function defined on $E$ with values in $\mathbb{R}^2$. We give a criterion, the central limit theorem along subsequences of positive density, for the recurrence of the corresponding ‘stationary walk’ defined as the cocycle $\big(\sum^{n-1}_{j=0}\Phi(T^jx)\big)_{n\geq1}$.

This criterion is satisfied by functions which are homologous to a martingale difference (a property which holds for regular functions in many systems). It can also be applied to the periodic Lorentz gas in the plane and shows recurrence for this model.

Let A be a finite set and let ϕ:Aℤ→ℝ be a locally constant potential. For each β>0 (‘inverse temperature’), there is a unique Gibbs measure μβϕ. We prove that as β→+∞, the family (μβϕ)β>0 converges (in the weak-* topology) to a measure that we characterize. This measure is concentrated on a certain subshift of finite type, which is a finite union of transitive subshifts of finite type. The two main tools are an approximation by periodic orbits and the Perron–Frobenius theorem for matrices à la Birkhoff. The crucial idea we bring is a ‘renormalization’ procedure which explains convergence and provides a recursive algorithm for computing the weights of the ergodic decomposition of the limit.

The purpose of this article is two fold. First, we show how quasi-periodic solutions for the N-body problem can be constructed by variational methods. We illustrate this by constructing uncountably many quasi-periodic solutions for the four- and six-body problems with equal masses. Second, we show by examples that a system of N masses can possess infinitely many simple or multiple choreographic solutions. In particular, it is shown that the four-body problem with equal masses has infinitely many double choreographic solutions and the six-body problem with equal masses has infinitely many simple and double choreographic solutions. Our approach is based on the technique of binary decomposition and some variational properties of Keplerian orbits.

We show that the Poincaré series of the Fuchsian group of deck transformations of ${\mathbb C}\setminus{\mathbb Z}$ diverges logarithmically. This is because ${\mathbb C}\setminus{\mathbb Z}$ is a ${\mathbb Z}$-cover of the three horned sphere, whence its geodesic flow has a good section which behaves like a random walk on ${\mathbb R}$ with Cauchy distributed jump distribution and has logarithmic asymptotic type.

We show that, providing a metric space $X$ has a boundary that is in some sense similar to the boundary of hyperbolic space, the iterates of a contraction $f:X\to X$ converge locally uniformly to a point in, or on the boundary of, $X$. This generalises the Denjoy–Wolff theorem for analytic self-maps of the unit disc in the complex plane, and also shows that if $D$ is a bounded strictly convex subdomain of ${\Bbb R}^n$, then any contraction of $D$ with respect to the Hilbert metric of $D$ converges to a point in the closure of $D$.

We show that if M is a compact simply connected Riemannian manifold whose geodesic flow is completely integrable with periodic integrals, then M is rationally elliptic, i.e. the rational homotopy of M is finite dimensional. We also show that rational ellipticity is shared by simply connected compact manifolds whose cotangent bundle admits a multiplicity free compact action that leaves invariant the Hamiltonian associated with some Riemannian metric. In particular it follows that if M is a Riemannian manifold whose geodesic flow is completely integrable by the Thimm method, then M is rationally elliptic. Other questions concerning the global behaviour of geodesics on homogeneous spaces are discussed.

We study dynamical systems that have bounded complexity with respect to three kinds metrics: the Bowen metric $d_{n}$, the max-mean metric $\hat{d}_{n}$ and the mean metric $\bar{d}_{n}$, both in topological dynamics and ergodic theory. It is shown that a topological dynamical system $(X,T)$ has bounded complexity with respect to $d_{n}$ (respectively $\hat{d}_{n}$) if and only if it is equicontinuous (respectively equicontinuous in the mean). However, we construct minimal systems that have bounded complexity with respect to $\bar{d}_{n}$ but that are not equicontinuous in the mean. It turns out that an invariant measure $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ on $(X,T)$ has bounded complexity with respect to $d_{n}$ if and only if $(X,T)$ is $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$-equicontinuous. Meanwhile, it is shown that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ has bounded complexity with respect to $\hat{d}_{n}$ if and only if $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ has bounded complexity with respect to $\bar{d}_{n}$, if and only if $(X,T)$ is $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$-mean equicontinuous and if and only if it has discrete spectrum.

We prove that fairly general spaces of tilings of \mathbb{R}^d are fiber bundles over the torus T^d, with totally disconnected fiber. This was conjectured (in a weaker form) in the second author's recent work, and proved in certain cases. In fact, we show that each such space is homeomorphic to the d-fold suspension of a \mathbb{Z}^d subshift (or equivalently, a tiling space whose tiles are marked unit d-cubes). The only restrictions on our tiling spaces are that (1) the tiles are assumed to be polygons (polyhedra if d>2) that meet full-edge to full-edge (or full-face to full-face), (2) only a finite number of tile types are allowed, and (3) each tile type appears in only a finite number of orientations. The proof is constructive and we illustrate it by constructing a ‘square’ version of the Penrose tiling system.

Let Γ be a countable group and let f be a free probability measure-preserving action of Γ. We show that all Bernoulli actions of Γ are weakly contained in f. It follows that for a finitely generated group Γ, the cost is maximal on Bernoulli actions for Γ and that all free factors of i.i.d. (independent and identically distributed) actions of Γ have the same cost. We also show that if f is ergodic, but not strongly ergodic, then f is weakly equivalent to f×I, where Idenotes the trivial action of Γ on the unit interval. This leads to a relative version of the Glasner–Weiss dichotomy.

We show that there exists a subset F of the n-dimensional torus n such that F has Hausdorff dimension n and for any x∈F and any semisimple automorphism σ of n the closure of the σ-orbit of x contains no periodic points.

Let $f: M \to M$ be a diffeomorphism defined in a three-dimensional compact boundary-less manifold M. We prove that for an open dense set, C1-robustly expansive homoclinic classes H(p) for f are hyperbolic. A diffeomorphism f is $\alpha$-expansive on a compact invariant set K if there is $\alpha>0$ such that for all $x,y\in K$, if ${\rm dist}(f^n(x),f^n(y))\leq \alpha$ for all $n\in \mathbb Z$ then x = y. By ‘robustly’ we mean that there is $\alpha>0$ such that for all nearby diffeomorphisms g, the homoclinic class H(pg) of the continuation of p is $\alpha$-expansive.

For a class of one-dimensional maps with two indifferent fixed points of the same order, a parallel to the arc-sine law for the number of positive partial sums of a real random walk is proved.

This work focuses on the persistence of lower-dimensional tori with prescribed frequencies and singular normal matrices in reversible systems. By the Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theory and the special structure of unperturbed nonlinear terms in the differential equation, we prove that the invariant torus with given frequency persists under small perturbations. Our result is a generalization of X. Wang et al [Degenerate lower dimensional tori in reversible systems. J. Math. Anal. Appl.387 (2012), 776–790].