This is a significantly expanded version of the survey paper "Mixing and decay of correlations in non-uniformly expanding maps: a survey of recent results" math/0301319.
We discuss recent results on decay of correlations for non-uniformly expanding maps. Throughout the discussion, we address the question of why different dynamical systems have different rates of decay of correlations and how this may reflect underlying geometrical characteristics of the system.
We also give detailed sketches of some results such as the existence of absolutely continuous invariant measures for Markov expanding maps, the construction of induced Markov expanding maps in some one-dimensional maps, and the proof of the fact that such a construction can be carried out for a positive probability set of maps in the quadratic family.
Let $T \colon M \to M$ be a nonuniformly expanding dynamical system, such as logistic or intermittent map. Let $v \colon M \to \mathbb{R}^d$ be an observable and $v_n = \sum_{k=0}^{n-1} v \circ T^k$ denote the Birkhoff sums. Given a probability measure $μ$ on $M$, we consider $v_n$ as a discrete time random process on the probability space $(M, μ)$. In smooth ergodic theory there are various natural choices of $μ$, such as the Lebesgue measure, or the absolutely continuous $T$-invariant measure. They give rise to different random processes. We investigate relation between such processes. We sh…
For a large class of nonuniformly expanding maps of $\Bbb R^m$, with indifferent fixed points and unbounded distorsion and non necessarily Markovian, we construct an absolutely continuous invariant measure. We extend to our case techniques previously used for expanding maps on quasi-Hölder spaces. We give general conditions and provide examples to which apply our result.
We estimate the speed of decay of correlations for general nonuniformly expanding dynamical systems, using estimates on the time the system takes to become really expanding. Our method can deal with fast decays, such as exponential or stretched exponential. We prove in particular that the correlations of the Alves-Viana map decay in $O(e^{-c \sqrt{n}})$.
We give a unified treatment of decay of correlations for nonuniformly expanding systems with a good inducing scheme. In addition to being more elementary than previous treatments, our results hold for general integrable return time functions under fairly mild conditions on the inducing scheme.
Using a sifting-shadowing combination, we prove in this paper that an arbitrary $\mathrm{C}^1$-class local diffeomorphism $f$ of a closed manifold $M^n$ is uniformly expanding on the closure $\mathrm{Cl}_{M^n}(\mathrm{Per}(f))$ of its periodic point set $\mathrm{Per}(f)$, if it is nonuniformly expanding on $\mathrm{Per}(f)$.
For a certain parametrized family of maps on the circle with critical points and logarithmic singularities where derivatives blow up to infinity, we construct a positive measure set of parameters corresponding to maps which exhibit nonuniformly expanding behavior. This implies the existence of "chaotic" dynamics in dissipative homoclinic tangles in periodically perturbed differential equations.
We give sufficient conditions for the uniform hyperbolicity of certain nonuniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems. In particular, we show that local diffeomorphisms that are nonuniformly expanding on sets of total probability are necessarily uniformly expanding. We also present a version of this result for diffeomorphisms with nonuniformly hyperbolic sets.
For a certain parametrized family of maps on the circle, with critical points and logarithmic singularities where derivatives blow up to infinity, a positive measure set of parameters was constructed in [19], corresponding to maps which exhibit nonuniformly hyperbolic behavior. For these parameters, we prove the existence of absolutely continuous invariant measures with good statistical properties, such as exponential decay of correlations. Combining our construction with the logarithmic nature of the singularities, we obtain a positive variance in Central Limit Theorem, for any nonconstant Hö…
We use an Ulam-type discretization scheme to provide pointwise approximations for invariant densities of interval maps with a neutral fixed point. We prove that the approximate invariant density converges pointwise to the true density at a rate $C^*\cdot\frac{\ln m}{m}$, where $C^*$ is a computable fixed constant and $m^{-1}$ is the mesh size of the discretization.
The transfer operator corresponding to a uniformly expanding map enjoys good spectral properties. Here it is verified that coupling yields explicit estimates that depend continuously on the expansion and distortion constants of the map. For nonuniformly expanding maps with a uniformly expanding induced map, we obtain explicit estimates for mixing rates (exponential, stretched exponential, polynomial) that again depend continuously on the constants for the induced map together with data associated to the inducing time. Finally, for nonuniformly hyperbolic transformations, we obtain the correspo…
Given a rational map of the Riemann sphere and a subset $A$ of its Julia set, we study the $A$-exceptional set, that is, the set of points whose orbit does not accumulate at $A$. We prove that if the topological entropy of $A$ is less than the topological entropy of the full system then the $A$-exceptional set has full topological entropy. Furthermore, if the Hausdorff dimension of $A$ is smaller than the dynamical dimension of the system then the Hausdorff dimension of the $A$-exceptional set is larger than or equal to the dynamical dimension, with equality in the particular case when the dyn…
We prove the almost sure invariance principle with rate $o(n^{\varepsilon})$ for every $\varepsilon > 0$ for Hölder continuous observables on nonuniformly expanding and nonuniformly hyperbolic transformations with exponential tails. Examples include Gibbs-Markov maps with big images, Axiom A diffeomorphisms, dispersing billiards and a class of logistic and Hénon maps. The best previously proved rate is $O(n^{1/4} (\log n)^{1/2} (\log \log n)^{1/4})$. As a part of our method, we show that nonuniformly expanding transformations are factors of Markov shifts with simple structure and natural metri…
Noise-induced order is the phenomenon by which the chaotic regime of a deterministic system is destroyed in the presence of noise. In this manuscript, we establish noise-induced order for a natural class of systems of dimension $\geq 2$ consisting of a fiber-contracting skew product a over nonuniformly-expanding 1-dimensional system.
Gouezel and Sarig introduced operator renewal theory as a method to prove sharp results on polynomial decay of correlations for certain classes of nonuniformly expanding maps. In this paper, we apply the method to planar dispersing billiards and multidimensional nonMarkovian intermittent maps.
We consider deterministic homogenization (convergence to a stochastic differential equation) for multiscale systems of the form \[ x_{k+1} = x_k + n^{-1} a_n(x_k,y_k) + n^{-1/2} b_n(x_k,y_k), \quad y_{k+1} = T_n y_k, \] where the fast dynamics is given by a family $T_n$ of nonuniformly expanding maps. Part 1 builds on our recent work on martingale approximations for families of nonuniformly expanding maps. We prove an iterated weak invariance principle and establish optimal iterated moment bounds for such maps. (The iterated moment bounds are new even for a fixed nonuniformly expanding map T.)…
We prove results on mixing and mixing rates for toral extensions of nonuniformly expanding maps with subexponential decay of correlations. Both the finite and infinite measure settings are considered. Under a Dolgopyat-type condition on nonexistence of approximate eigenfunctions, we prove that existing results for (possibly nonMarkovian) nonuniformly expanding maps hold also for their toral extensions.
We study decay of correlations, the asymptotic distribution of hitting times and fluctuations of the return times for a robust class of multidimensional non-uniformly hyperbolic transformations. Oliveira and Viana [15] proved that there is a unique equilibrium state for a large class of non- uniformly expanding transformations and Holder continuous potentials with small variation. For an open class of potentials with small variation, we prove quasi-compactness of the Ruelle-Perron-Frobenius operator in a space $V_θ$ of functions with essential bounded variation that strictly contain Holder con…
We obtain large and moderate deviation estimates, as well as concentration inequalities, for a class of nonuniformly expanding maps with stretched exponential decay of correlations. In the large deviation regime, we also exhibit examples showing that the obtained upper bounds are essentially optimal.
We give a review of results on superpolynomial decay of correlations, and polynomial decay of correlations for nonuniformly expanding semiflows and nonuniformly hyperbolic flows. A self-contained proof is given for semiflows. Results for flows are stated without proof (the proofs are contained in separate joint work with Balint and Butterley). Applications include intermittent solenoidal flows, suspended Henon attractors, Lorenz attractors, and various Lorentz gas models including the infinite horizon Lorentz gas.
We establish bounds for the measure of deviation sets associated to continuous observables with respect to not necessarily invariant weak Gibbs measures. Under some mild assumptions, we obtain upper and lower bounds for the measure of deviation sets of some non-uniformly expanding maps, including quadratic maps and robust multidimensional non-uniformly expanding local diffeomorphisms. For that purpose, a measure theoretical weak form of specification is introduced and proved to hold for the robust classes of multidimensional nonuniformly expanding local diffeomorphisms and Viana maps.
We prove statistical limit laws for sequences of Birkhoff sums of the type $\sum_{j=0}^{n-1}v_n\circ T_n^j$ where $T_n$ is a family of nonuniformly hyperbolic transformations. The key ingredient is a new martingale-coboundary decomposition for nonuniformly hyperbolic transformations which is useful already in the case when the family $T_n$ is replaced by a fixed transformation $T$, and which is particularly effective in the case when $T_n$ varies with $n$. In addition to uniformly expanding/hyperbolic dynamical systems, our results include cases where the family $T_n$ consists of intermittent …
We obtain the first results on convergence rates in the Prokhorov metric for the weak invariance principle (functional central limit theorem) for deterministic dynamical systems. Our results hold for uniformly expanding/hyperbolic (Axiom A) systems, as well as nonuniformly expanding/hyperbolic systems such as dispersing billiards, Henon-like attractors, Viana maps and intermittent maps. As an application, we obtain convergence rates for deterministic homogenization in multiscale systems.
We prove that the statistical properties of random perturbations of a nonuniformly hyperbolic diffeomorphism are described by a finite number of stationary measures. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for the stochastic stability of such dynamical systems. We show that a certain $C^2$-open class of nonuniformly hyperbolic diffeomorphisms introduced in [Alves, J; Bonatti, C. and Viana, V., SRB measures for partially hyperbolic systems with mostly expanding central direction, Invent. Math., 140 (2000), 351-398] are stochastically stable. Our setting encompasses that of partially hy…
We give conditions under which nonuniformly expanding maps exhibit lower bounds of polynomial type for the decay of correlations and for a large class of observables. We show that if the Lasota-Yorke type inequality for the transfer operator of a first return map are satisfied in a Banach space B, and the absolutely continuous invariant measure obtained is weak mixing, in terms of aperiodicity, then under some renewal condition, the maps have polynomial decay of correlations for observables in B. We also provide some general conditions that give aperiodicity for expanding maps in higher dimens…
Takens constructed a residual subset of the state space consisting of initial points with historic behaviour for expanding maps on the circle. We prove that this statistical property of expanding maps on the circle is preserved under small random perturbations. The proof is given by establishing a random Markov partition, which follows from a random version of Shub's Theorem on topological conjugacy with the folding maps.
We present results on the broadband nature of the power spectrum $S(ω)$, $ω\in(0,2π)$, for a large class of nonuniformly expanding maps with summable and nonsummable decay of correlations. In particular, we consider a class of intermittent maps $f:[0,1]\to[0,1]$ with $f(x)\approx x^{1+γ}$ for $x\approx 0$, where $γ\in(0,1)$. Such maps have summable decay of correlations when $γ\in(0,\frac12)$, and $S(ω)$ extends to a continuous function on $[0,2π]$ by the classical Wiener-Khintchine Theorem. We show that $S(ω)$ is typically bounded away from zero for Hölder observables. Moreover, in the nonsum…
We give both sufficient conditions and necessary conditions for the stochastic stability of non-uniformly expanding maps either with or without critical sets. We also show that the number of probability measures describing the statistical asymptotic behaviour of random orbits is bounded by the number of SRB measures if the noise level is small enough. As an application of these results we prove the stochastic stability of certain classes of non-uniformly expanding maps introduced in \cite{V} and \cite{ABV}.
We develop a theory of operator renewal sequences in the context of infinite ergodic theory. For large classes of dynamical systems preserving an infinite measure, we determine the asymptotic behaviour of iterates $L^n$ of the transfer operator. This was previously an intractable problem. Examples of systems covered by our results include (i) parabolic rational maps of the complex plane and (ii) (not necessarily Markovian) nonuniformly expanding interval maps with indifferent fixed points. In addition, we give a particularly simple proof of pointwise dual ergodicity (asymptotic behaviour of $\…
We study parameter families of quasiperiodically forced (qpf) circle maps with Diophantine frequency. Under certain C1-open conditions concerning their geometry, we prove that these families exhibit nonuniformly hyperbolic behaviour, often referred to as the existence of strange nonchaotic attractors, on parameter sets of positive measure. This provides a nonlinear version of results by Young on quasiperiodic SL (2;R)-cocycles and complements previous results in this direction which hold for sets of frequencies of positive measure, but did not allow for an explicit characterisation of these fr…
Recently, there has been an increasing interest on nonautonomous composition of perturbed hyperbolic systems: composing perturbations of a given hyperbolic map $F$ results in statistical behaviour close to that of $F$. We show this fact in the case of piecewise regular expanding maps. In particular, we impose conditions on perturbations of this class of maps that include situations slightly more general than what has been considered so far, and prove that these are stochastically stable in the usual sense. We then prove that the evolution of a given distribution of mass under composition of ti…
A classic approach in dynamical systems is to use particular geometric structures to deduce statistical properties, for example the existence of invariant measures with stochastic-like behaviour such as large deviations or decay of correlations. Such geometric structures are generally highly non-trivial and thus a natural question is the extent to which this approach can be applied. In this paper we show that in many cases stochastic-like behaviour itself implies that the system has certain non-trivial geometric properties, which are therefore necessary as well as sufficient conditions for the…
We prove that the distributional limit of the normalised number of returns to small neighbourhoods of periodic points of non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems is compound Poisson. The returns to small balls around a fixed point in the phase space correspond to the occurrence of rare events, or exceedances of high thresholds, so that there is a connection between the laws of Return Times Statistics and Extreme Value Laws. The fact that the fixed point in the phase space is a repelling periodic point implies that there is a tendency for the exceedances to appear in clusters whose average si…
We consider open sets of maps in a manifold $M$ exhibiting non-uniform expanding behaviour in some domain $S\subset M$. Assuming that there is a forward invariant region containing $S$ where each map has a unique SRB measure, we prove that under general uniformity conditions, the SRB measure varies continuously in the $L^1$-norm with the map. As a main application we show that the open class of maps introduced in [V] fits to this situation, thus proving that the SRB measures constructed in [A] vary continuously with the map.
We consider the effect on the mixing properties of a piecewise smooth interval map $f$ when its domain is divided into $N$ equal subintervals and $f$ is composed with a permutation of these. The case of the stretch-and-fold map $f(x)=mx \bmod 1$ for integers $m \geq 2$ is examined in detail. We give a combinatorial description of those permutations $σ$ for which $σ\circ f$ is still (topologically) mixing, and show that the proportion of such permutations tends to $1$ as $N \to \infty$. We then investigate the mixing rate of $σ\circ f$ (as measured by the modulus of the second largest eigenvalu…
We consider the effect of noise on the dynamics generated by volume-preserving maps on a d-dimensional torus. The quantity we use to measure the irreversibility of the dynamics is the dissipation time. We focus on the asymptotic behaviour of this time in the limit of small noise. We derive universal lower and upper bounds for the dissipation time in terms of various properties of the map and its associated propagators: spectral properties, local expansivity, and global mixing properties. We show that the dissipation is slow for a general class of non-weakly-mixing maps; on the opposite, it is …
