This paper states a definition of homotopic rotation set for higher genus surface homeomorphisms, as well as a collection of results that justify this definition. We first prove elementary results: we prove that this rotation set is star-shaped, we discuss the realisation of rotation vectors by orbits or periodic orbits and we prove the creation of new rotation vectors for some configurations.Then we use the theory developped by Le Calvez and Tal in [LCT18a] to obtain two deeper results:-- If the homotopical rotation set contains the direction of a closed geodesic which has a self-intersection, then there exists a rotational horseshoe and hence infinitely many periodic orbits in many directions.-- If the homotopical rotation set contains the directions of two closed geodesics that meet, there exists infinitely many periodic orbits in many directions.
The aim of this short note is to explain how the arguments of the "closing lemma with time control" of F. Abdenur and S. Crovisier (arXiv:1111.4206) can be used to answer Question 1 of the article "Instability for the rotation set of homeomorphisms of the torus homotopic to the identity" of S. Addas-Zanata.
In this paper we consider closed orientable surfaces $S$ of positive genus and $C^r$-diffeomorphisms $f:S\rightarrow S$ isotopic to the identity ($r\geq 1)$. The main objective is to study periodic open topological disks which are homotopically unbounded (i.e. which lift to unbounded connected sets in the universal covering). We show that these disks are not uncommon, and are related to important dynamical phenomena. We also study the dynamics on these disks under certain generic conditions. Our first main result implies that for the torus (or for arbitrary surfaces, with an additional conditi…
We consider the homotopical dynamics on compact orientable surfaces of positive genus g. We establish a sufficient and necessary algebraic criterion for homotopy classes with infinitely many periodic points of maps on such surfaces in terms of the characteristic polynomial of the matrix representing the correspondig homomorphism of the first homology group. Our methods differ from that of the literature, which typically uses Nielsen number theory, because Nielsen numbers of iterates are difficult to compute except in special cases where they can be easily defined in terms of the easily computa…
Traditionally, rotation numbers for toroidal billiard flows are defined as the limiting vectors of average displacements per time on trajectory segments. The billard trajectories, being curves, oftentimes getting very close to closed loops, quite naturally define elements of the fundamental group of the billiard table. The simplest non-trivial fundamental group obtained this way belongs to the classical Sinai billiard, i.e., the billiard flow on the 2-torus with a single, convex obstacle removed. This fundamental group is known to be the group $\textbf{F}_2$ freely generated by two elements, w…
In this paper we consider torus homeomorphisms $f$ homotopic to Dehn twists. We prove that if the vertical rotation set of $f$ is reduced to zero, then there exists a compact connected essential "horizontal" set K, invariant under $f$. In other words, if we consider the lift $\hat{f}$ of $f$ to the cylinder, which has zero vertical rotation number, then all points have uniformly bounded motion under iterates of $\hat{f}$. Also, we give a simple explicit condition which, when satisfied, implies that the vertical rotation set contains an interval and thus also implies positive topological entrop…
We consider closed orientable surfaces $S$ of genus $g>1$ and homeomorphisms $f:S\rightarrow S$ homotopic to the identity. A set of hypotheses is presented, called fully essential system of curves $\mathscr{C}$ and it is shown that under these hypotheses, the natural lift of $f$ to the universal cover of $S$ (the Poincaré disk $\mathbb{D}),$ denoted $\widetilde{f},$ has complicated and rich dynamics. In this context we generalize results that hold for homeomorphisms of the torus homotopic to the identity when their rotation sets contain zero in the interior. In particular, we prove that if $f$…
In this paper we study the homotopical rotation vectors and the homotopical rotation sets for the billiard flow on the unit flat torus with three, mutually intersecting and mutually orthogonal cylindrical scatterers removed from it. The natural habitat for these objects is the infinite cone erected upon the Cantor set $\text{Ends}(\textbf{F}_3)$ of all "ends" of the hyperbolic group $\textbf{F}_3=π_1(\mathbf{Q})$. An element of $\text{Ends}(\textbf{F}_3)$ describes the direction in (the Cayley graph of) the group $\textbf{F}_3$ in which the considered trajectory escapes to infinity, whereas th…
We study the homotopical rotation vectors and the homotopical rotation sets for the billiard flow on the unit flat torus with two, disjoint and orthogonal cylindrical scatterers removed from it. The natural habitat for these objects is the infinite cone erected upon the Cantor set $\text{Ends}(G)$ of all "ends" of the hyperbolic group $G=π_1(\mathbf{Q})$. An element of $\text{Ends}(G)$ describes the direction in (the Cayley graph of) the group $G$ in which the considered trajectory escapes to infinity, whereas the height function $s$ ($s\ge 0$) of the cone gives us the average speed at which t…
We study the interplay between the dynamics of area-preserving surface homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity and the topology of the surface. We define fully essential dynamics and generalize the results previously obtained on strictly toral dynamics to surfaces of higher genus. Non-fully essential dynamics are, in a way, reducible to surfaces of lower genus, while in the fully essential case the dynamics is decomposed into a disjoint union of periodic bounded disks and a complementary invariant externally transitive continuum $C$. When the Misiurewicz-Ziemian rotation set has non-empty int…
We show that for generic homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity in a closed and oriented surface of genus $g>1$, the rotation set is given by a union of at most $2^{5g-3}$ convex sets. Examples showing the sharpness for this asymptotic order are provided.
We show that a toral homeomorphism which is homotopic to the identity and topologically semiconjugate to an irrational rotation of the circle is always a pseudo-rotation (i.e. its rotation set is a single point). In combination with recent results, this allows us to complete the study of the Franks-Misiurewicz conjecture in the minimal case.
Let $K_1$, $K_2$ $\subset$ $R^2$ be two convex, compact sets. We would like to know if there are commuting torus homeomorphisms $f$ and $h$ homotopic to the identity, with lifts $\tilde f$ and $\tilde h$, such that $K_1$ and $K_2$ are their rotation sets, respectively. In this work, we proof some cases where it cannot happen, assuming some restrictions on rotation sets.
We prove the existence of an open and dense set D\subset? Homeo0(T2) (set of toral homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity) such that the rotation set of any element in D is a rational polygon. We also extend this result to the set of axiom A dif- feomorphisms in Homeo0(T2). Further we observe the existence of minimal sets whose rotation set is a non-trivial segment, for an open set in Homeo0(T2).
We study the rotation sets for homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity on the torus $\mathbb T^d$, $d\ge 2$. In the conservative setting, we prove that there exists a Baire residual subset of the set $\text{Homeo}_{0, λ}(\mathbb T^2)$ of conservative homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity so that the set of points with wild pointwise rotation set is a Baire residual subset in $\mathbb T^2$, and that it carries full topological pressure and full metric mean dimension. Moreover, we prove that for every $d\ge 2$ the rotation set of $C^0$-generic conservative homeomorphisms on $\mathbb T^d$ is …
Identity-homotopic self-homeomorphisms of a space of non-periodic 1-dimensional tiling are generalizations of orientation-preserving self-homeomorphisms of circles. We define the analogue of rotation numbers for such maps. In constrast to the classical situation, additional assumptions are required to make rotation numbers globally well-defined and independent of initial conditions. We prove that these conditions are sufficient, and provide counterexamples when these conditions are not met.
We extend rotation theory of circle maps to tiling spaces. Specifically, we consider a 1-dimensional tiling space $Ω$ with finite local complexity and study self-maps $F$ that are homotopic to the identity and whose displacements are strongly pattern equivariant (sPE). In place of the familiar rotation number we define a cohomology class $[μ]$. We prove existence and uniqueness results for this class, develop a notion of irrationality, and prove an analogue of Poncaré's Theorem: If $[μ]$ is irrational, then $F$ is semi-conjugate to uniform translation on a space $Ω_μ$ of tilings that is homeom…
The aim of this paper is to show that the existence of attracting sets for quasiperiodically forced systems can be extended to appropriate skew-products on the cylinder, homotopic to the identity, in such a way that the general system will have (at least) one attracting set corresponding to every irrational rotation number ρin the rotation interval of the base map. This attracting set is a copy of the attracting set of the system quasiperiodically forced by a (rigid) rotation of angle ρ. This shows the co-existence of uncountably many attracting sets, one for each irrational in the rotation in…
We establish a set-oriented algorithm for the numerical approximation of the rotation set of homeomorphisms of the two-torus homotopic to the identity. A theoretical background is given by the concept of ε-rotation sets. These are obtained by replacing orbits with ε-pseudo-orbits in the definition of the Misiurewicz-Ziemian rotation set and are shown to converge to the latter as ε decreases to zero. Based on this result, we prove the convergence of the numerical approximations as precision and iteration time tend to infinity. Further, we provide analytic error estimates for the algorithm under…
Graph maps that are homotopic to the identity and that permute the vertices are studied. Given a periodic point for such a map, a {\em rotation element} is defined in terms of the fundamental group. A number of results are proved about the rotation elements associated to periodic points in a given edge of the graph. Most of the results show that the existence of two periodic points with certain rotation elements will imply an infinite family of other periodic points with related rotation elements. These results for periodic points can be considered as generalizations of the rotation interval f…
We study homeomorphisms of the two-torus, homotopic to the identity, whose rotation set has non-empty interior. For such maps, we give a purely topological characterisation of elliptic islands in a chaotic sea in terms of local rotation subsets. We further show that the chaotic regime defined in this way cannot contain any Lyapunov stable points. In order to demonstrate our results, we introduce a parameter family inspired by an example of Misiurewicz and Ziemian.
We consider $C^{1+ε}$ diffeomorphisms of the torus, denoted $f,$ homotopic to the identity and whose rotation sets have interior. We give some uniform bounds on the displacement of points in the plane under iterates of a lift of $f,$ relative to vectors in the boundary of the rotation set and we use these estimates in order to prove that if such a diffeomorphism $f$ preserves area, then the rotation vector of the area measure is an interior point of the rotation set. This settles a strong version of a conjecture proposed by P. Boyland. We also present some new results on the realization of ext…
We study quasiperiodically forced circle endomorphisms, homotopic to the identity, and show that under suitable conditions these exhibit uncountably many minimal sets with a complicated structure, to which we refer to as `strangely dispersed'. Along the way, we generalise some well-known results about circle endomorphisms to the uniquely ergodically forced case. Namely, all rotation numbers in the rotation interval of a uniquely ergodically forced circle endomorphism are realised on minimal sets, and if the rotation interval has non-empty interior then the topological entropy is strictly posit…
We prove that any planar birational integrable map, which preserves a fibration given by genus $0$ curves has a Lie symmetry and some associated invariant measures. The obtained results allow to study in a systematic way the global dynamics of these maps. Using this approach, the dynamics of several maps is described. In particular we are able to give, for particular examples, the explicit expression of the rotation number function, and the set of periods of the considered maps.
We study the relationship between free curves and periodic points for torus homeomorphisms in the homotopy class of the identity. By free curve we mean a homotopically nontrivial simple closed curve that is disjoint from its image. We prove that every rational point in the rotation set is realized by a periodic point provided that there is no free curve and the rotation set has empty interior. This gives a topological version of a theorem of Franks. Using this result, and inspired by a theorem of Guillou, we prove a version of the Poincaré-Birkhoff Theorem for torus homeomorphisms: in the abse…
We prove that a homeomorphism of the torus homotopic to the identity whose rotation set is reduced to a single totally irrational vector is chain-recurrent. In fact, we show that pseudo-orbits can be chosen with a small number of jumps, in particular, that the nonwandering set is weakly transitive. We give an example showing that the nonwandering set of such a homeomorphism may not be transitive.
We provide a classification of minimal sets of homeomorphisms of the two-torus, in terms of the structure of their complement. We show that this structure is exactly one of the following types: (1) a disjoint union of topological disks, or (2) a disjoint union of essential annuli and topological disks, or (3) a disjoint union of one doubly essential component and bounded topological disks. Periodic bounded disks can only occur in type 3. This result provides a framework for more detailed investigations, and additional information on the torus homeomorphism allows to draw further conclusions. I…
Let $f: \mathbb{T}^2 \to \mathbb{T}^2$ be a homeomorphism homotopic to the identity and $F: \mathbb{R}^2 \to \mathbb{R}^2$ a lift of $f$ such that the rotation set $ρ(F)$ is a line segment of rational slope containing a point in $\mathbb{Q}^2$. We prove that if $f$ is ergodic with respect to the Lebesgue measure on the torus and the average rotation vector (with respect to same measure) does not belong to $\mathbb{Q}^2$ then some power of $f$ is an annular homeomorphism.
In this paper we consider $C^{1+ε}$ area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the torus $f,$ either homotopic to the identity or to Dehn twists. We suppose that $f$ has a lift $\widetilde{f}$ to the plane such that its rotation set has interior and prove, among other things that if zero is an interior point of the rotation set, then there exists a hyperbolic $\widetilde{f}$-periodic point $\widetilde{Q}$$\in {\rm I}\negthinspace {\rm R^2}$ such that $W^u(\widetilde{Q})$ intersects $W^s(\widetilde{Q}+(a,b))$ for all integers $(a,b)$, which implies that $\bar{W^u(\widetilde{Q})}$ is invariant under int…
A rational pseudo-rotation $f$ of the torus is a homeomorphism homotopic to the identity with a rotation set consisting of a single vector $v$ of rational coordinates. We give a classification for rational pseudo-rotations with an invariant measure of full support, in terms of the deviations from the constant rotation $x\mapsto x+v$ in the universal covering. For the simpler case that $v=(0,0)$, it states that either every orbit by the lifted dynamics is bounded, or the displacement in some rational direction is uniformly bounded (implying that the dynamics is annular) or the set of fixed poin…
We consider typical area preserving flows on higher genus surfaces and prove that the flow restricted to mixing minimal components is mixing of all orders, thus answering affimatively to Rohlin's multiple mixing question in this context. The main tool is a variation of the Ratner property (a property originally proved by Ratner for the horocycle flow), i.e. the switchable Ratner property introduced by Fayad and Kanigowski for special flows over rotations. This property, which is of independent interest, provides a quantitative description of the parabolic behaviour of these flows and has impli…
We prove a rigidity result for foliations on surfaces of genus two, which can be seen as a generalization to higher genus of Herman's theorem on circle diffeomorphisms and, correspondingly, flows on the torus. We prove in particular that, if a smooth, orientable foliation with non-degenerate (Morse) singularities on a closed surface of genus two is minimal, then, under a full measure condition for the rotation number, it is differentiably conjugate to a linear foliation. The corresponding result at the level of Poincaré sections is that, for a full measure set of interval exchange transformati…
In this paper we consider $C^\infty $-generic families of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the torus homotopic to the identity and their rotation sets. Let $f_t:\rm{T^2\rightarrow T^2}$ be such a family, $\widetilde{f}_t:\rm I\negthinspace R^2 \rightarrow \rm I\negthinspace R^2$ be a fixed family of lifts and $ρ(\widetilde{f}_t)$ be their rotation sets, which we assume to have interior for $t$ in a certain open interval $I.$ We also assume that some rational point $(\frac pq,\frac rq)\in \partial ρ(\widetilde{f}_{\overline{t}})$ for a certain parameter $\overline{t}\in I$ and we want to unde…
In this work we study homeomorphisms of closed orientable surfaces homotopic to the identity, focusing on the existence of non-contractible periodic orbits. We show that, if $g$ is such a homeomorphism, and if $\hat g$ is its lift to the universal covering of $S$ that commutes with the deck transformations, then one of the following three conditions must be satisfied: (1) The set of fixed points for $\hat g$ projects to a closed subset $F$ which contains an essential continuum, (2) $g$ has non-contratible periodic points of every sufficiently large period, or (3) there exists an uniform bound …
Let $f:{\rm T^2\rightarrow T^2}$ be a homeomorphism homotopic to the identity, $\widetilde{f}:{\rm I}\negthinspace {\rm R^2\rightarrow I} \negthinspace {\rm R^2}$ be a fixed lift and $ρ(\widetilde{f})$ be its rotation set, which we assume to have interior. We also assume that some rational point $(\frac pq,\frac rq)\in \partial ρ(\widetilde{f})$ and we want to understand how stable this situation is. To be more precise, we want to know if it is possible to find two different homeomorphisms, which are arbitrarily small $C^0$-perturbations of $f,$ denoted $f_1$ and $f_2,$ in a way that $(\frac p…
The dynamics of a beam held on a horizontal frame by springs and bouncing off a step is described by a separable two degrees of freedom Hamiltonian system with impacts that respect, point wise, the separability symmetry. The energy in each degree of freedom is preserved, and the motion along each level set is conjugated, via action angle coordinates, to a geodesic flow on a flat two-dimensional surface in the four dimensional phase space. Yet, for a range of energies, these surfaces are not the simple Liouville-Arnold tori - these are tori of genus two, thus the motion on them is not conjugate…
