We construct d-dimensional substitution sequences for which the continuous part of the spectrum is generated by measures equal to Lebesgue measure. A special case is the Rudin–Shapiro substitution sequence. The construction uses Hadamard matrices in an essential way, so the dimension and size of a substitution is restricted by the size of the Hadamard matrix defining it. Each such substitution automatically has a dual substitution, which is defined by the same Hadamard matrix, and which retains a Lebesgue spectral component. We also see that random application of our substitutions produces sequences with a Lebesgue component in their spectrum. Finally, we see that any d-dimensional substitution with d > 1 can be ‘unraveled’ into lower-dimensional substitutions which still have Lebesgue spectral components.

We consider C2 Hénon-like families of diffeomorphisms of and study the boundary of the region of parameter values for which the non-wandering set is uniformly hyperbolic. Assuming sufficient dissipativity, we show that the loss of hyperbolicity is caused by a first homoclinic or heteroclinic tangency and that uniform hyperbolicity estimates hold uniformly in the parameter up to the bifurcation parameter and even, to some extent, at the bifurcation parameter.

In this paper, random expansions to non-integer bases \beta >1 are studied. For \beta's satisfying \beta^2=n\beta +k (with 1\leq k\leq n) and \beta^n=\beta^{n-1}+\dotsb + \beta +1 the ergodic properties of such expansions are described.

We analyse dynamical properties of the negative beta-transformation, which has been studied recently by Ito and Sadahiro. Contrary to the classical beta-transformation, the density of the absolutely continuous invariant measure of the negative beta-transformation may be zero on certain intervals. By investigating this property in detail, we prove that the (−β)-transformation is exact for all β>1, confirming a conjecture of Góra, and intrinsic, which completes a study of Faller. We also show that the limit behaviour of the (−β)-expansion of 1 when β tends to 1 is related to the Thue–Morse sequence. A consequence of the exactness is that every Yrrap number, which is a β>1 such that the (−β) -expansion of 1 is eventually periodic, is a Perron number. This extends a well-known property of Parry numbers. However, the set of Parry numbers is different from the set of Yrrap numbers.

We introduce the tracial Rokhlin property for automorphisms of stably finite simple unital $C^*$-algebras containing enough projections. This property is formally weaker than the various Rokhlin properties considered by Herman and Ocneanu, Kishimoto, and Izumi. Our main results are as follows. Let $A$ be a stably finite simple unital $C^*$-algebra, and let $\alpha$ be an automorphism of $A$ which has the tracial Rokhlin property. Suppose $A$ has real rank zero and stable rank one, and suppose that the order on projections over $A$ is determined by traces. Then the crossed product algebra $C^* (\mathbb{Z}, A, \alpha)$ also has these three properties. We also present examples of $C^*$-algebras $A$ with automorphisms $\alpha$ which satisfy the above assumptions, but such that $C^* (\mathbb{Z}, A, \alpha)$ does not have tracial rank zero.

We investigate the iterative dynamics of symplectic piecewise-affine elliptic rotation maps associated with matrices with non-integer entries, \big(\begin{smallmatrix} 0 & -1 \\ 1 & a \end{smallmatrix}\big), where -2 < a < 2. We explain how their singularity and periodicity structures develop in general. In a special case, a = \pm \sqrt 2, we completely determine the orbit structure, the singularity structure, the invariant fractal and the ergodicity on the invariant fractal with respect to its Hausdorff measure. We also report an example of a period tripling cascade that arises from this system.

The purpose of this research is to describe all smooth vector fields on the torus T2 with a finite number of singularities, no periodic orbits and no saddleconnections. In this paper we are able to complete the description within the class of vector fields which are area contracting near all singularities. In particular we give a large class of analytic vector fields on the torus T2 which have non-trivial recurrence and also sinks.

We study ergodic properties of invariant measures for the partially hyperbolic horseshoes, introduced in Díaz et al [Destroying horseshoes via heterodimensional cycles: generating bifurcations inside homoclinic classes. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys. 29 (2009), 433–474]. These maps have a one-dimensional center direction Ec, and are at the boundary of the (uniformly) hyperbolic diffeomorphisms (they are constructed bifurcating hyperbolic horseshoes via heterodimensional cycles). We prove that every ergodic measure is hyperbolic, but the set of Lyapunov exponents in the central direction has gap: all ergodic invariant measures have negative exponent, with the exception of one ergodic measure with positive exponent. As a consequence, we obtain the existence of equilibrium states for any continuous potential. We also prove that there exists a phase transition for the smooth family of potentials given by ϕt=t log ∣DF∣Ec∣.

We give sharp regularity results for the invariant subbundles of hyperbolic dynamical systems in terms of contraction and expansion rates and prove optimality in a strong sense: we construct open dense sets of codimension one systems where this regularity is not exceeded. Furthermore, we exhibit open dense sets of symplectic, geodesic, and codimension one systems where the analogous regularity results of [PSW] are optimal. As our main result we produce open sets of symplectic Anosov diffeomorphisms and flows with low transverse Hölder regularity of the invariant foliations almost everywhere. Prevalence of low regularity of conjugacies is a corollary. We also establish a new connection between the transverse regularity of foliations and their tangent subbundles.

An ∞-step nilsystem is an inverse limit of minimal nilsystems. In this article, it is shown that a minimal distal system is an ∞-step nilsystem if and only if it has no non-trivial pairs with arbitrarily long finite IP-independence sets. Moreover, it is proved that any minimal system without non-trivial pairs with arbitrarily long finite IP-independence sets is an almost one-to-one extension of its maximal ∞-step nilfactor, and each invariant ergodic measure is isomorphic (in the measurable sense) to the Haar measure on some ∞-step nilsystem. The question if such a system is uniquely ergodic remains open. In addition, the topological complexity of an ∞-step nilsystem is computed, showing that it is polynomial for each non-trivial open cover.

A well-known result in the area of dynamical systems asserts that any invertible hyperbolic operator on any Banach space is structurally stable. This result was originally obtained by Hartman in 1960 for operators on finite-dimensional spaces. The general case was independently obtained by Palis and Pugh around 1968. We will exhibit a class of examples of structurally stable operators that are not hyperbolic, thereby showing that the converse of the above-mentioned result is false in general. We will also prove that an invertible operator on a Banach space is hyperbolic if and only if it is expansive and has the shadowing property. Moreover, we will show that if a structurally stable operator is expansive, then it must be uniformly expansive. Finally, we will characterize the weighted shifts on the spaces $c_{0}(\mathbb{Z})$ and $\ell _{p}(\mathbb{Z})$ ($1\leq p<\infty$) that satisfy the shadowing property.

We consider a piecewise smooth expanding map on an interval which has two invariant subsets of positive Lebesgue measure and exactly two ergodic absolutely continuous invariant probability measures (ACIMs). When this system is perturbed slightly to make the invariant sets merge, we describe how the unique ACIM of the perturbed map can be approximated by a convex combination of the two initial ergodic ACIMs. The result is generalized to the case of finitely many invariant components.

A class of vector fields on the 2-torus, which includes Cherry fields, is studied. Natural paths through this class are defined and it is shown that the parameters for which the vector field is unstable is the closure of has irrational rotation number}, where ƒ is a certain map of the circle and Rt is rotation through t. This is shown to be a Cantor set of zero Hausdorff dimension. The Cherry fields are shown to form a family of codimension one submanifolds of the set of vector fields. The natural paths are shown to be stable paths.

We give a general version of the Birkhoff ergodic theorem for functions taking values in non-positively curved spaces. In this setting, the notion of a Birkhoff sum is replaced by that of a barycenter along the orbits. The construction of an appropriate barycenter map is the core of this note. As a byproduct of our construction, we prove a fixed point theorem for actions by isometries on a Buseman space.

For a large class of Markov operators on trees we prove the formula ${\bf HD}\,\nu=h/l$ connecting the Hausdorff dimension of the harmonic measure $\nu$ on the tree boundary, the rate of escape $l$ and the asymptotic entropy $h$. Applications of this formula include random walks on free groups, conditional random walks, random walks in random environment and random walks on treed equivalence relations.

In the classical iteration theory we say that for a given polynomial $f$ a point $z_0\in\C$ belongs to the Julia set if the sequence of iterates $(f^n)$ is not normal in any neighbourhood of $z_0$. In this paper, we look at the set of non-normality of $(F_n)$, $F_n:=f_n\circ\cdots\circ f_1$, where $(f_n)$ is a given sequence of polynomials of degree at least two. If we can find a hyperbolic domain $M$ which is invariant under all $f_n$, $n\in\N$, $\infty\in M$ and $F_n\to\infty\ (n\to\infty)$ locally uniformly in $M$, then we ask whether these sets of non-normality, which we will also call Julia sets, have properties which we know from the classical case. We show that the Julia set is self-similar. Furthermore, the Julia set is perfect or finite. The finite case may actually occur. We will also give some sufficient conditions for the Julia set being perfect. In the last section we give some examples of sequences of polynomials (where no domain $M$ exists) which have a pathological behaviour in contrast to the classical case.

In this paper, we propose a model for the destruction of three-dimensional horseshoes via heterodimensional cycles. This model yields some new dynamical features. Among other things, it provides examples of homoclinic classes properly contained in other classes and it is a model of a new sort of heteroclinic bifurcations we call generating.

Given a compact (two-sided) flow, an isolated invariant set S and a Morse-decomposition (M1, …, Mn) of S, there is a generalized Morse equation, proved by Conley and Zehnder, which relates the Alexander-Spanier cohomology groups of the Conley indices of the sets Mi and S with each other. Recently, Rybakowski developed the technique of isolating blocks and extended Conley's index theory to a class of one-sided semiflows on non-necessarily compact spaces, including e.g. semiflows generated by parabolic equations. Using these results, we discuss in this paper Morse decompositions and prove the above-mentioned Morse equation not only for arbitrary homology and cohomology groups, but also in this more general semiflow setting.

We investigate the β-expansion of an algebraic number in an algebraic base β. Using tools from Diophantine approximation, we prove several results that may suggest a strong difference between the asymptotic behaviour of eventually periodic expansions and that of non-eventually periodic expansions.

Let $f$ be a smooth homeomorphism of the circle having one cubic-exponent critical point and irrational rotation number of bounded combinatorial type. Using certain pull-back and quasiconformal surgical techniques, we prove that the scaling ratios of $f$ about the critical point are asymptotically independent of $f$. This settles in particular the golden mean universality conjecture. We introduce the notion of a holomorphic commuting pair, a complex dynamical system that, in the analytic case, represents an extension of $f$ to the complex plane and behaves somewhat as a quadratic-like mapping. We define a suitable renormalization operator that acts on such objects. Through careful analysis of the family of entire mappings given by $z\mapsto z+\theta -(1/2\pi)\sin{2\pi z}$, $\theta$ real, we construct examples of holomorphic commuting pairs, from which certain necessary limit set pre-rigidity results are extracted. The rigidity problem for $f$ is thereby reduced to one of renormalization convergence. We handle this last problem by means of Teichmüller extremal methods made available through the recent work of Sullivan on Riemann surface laminations and renormalization of unimodal mappings.