We investigate quantitative recurrence in systems having an infinite measure. We extend the Ornstein-Weiss theorem for a general class of infinite systems estimating return time in decreasing sequences of cylinders. Then we restrict to a class of one dimensional maps with indifferent fixed points and calculate quantitative recurrence in sequences of balls, obtaining that this is related to the behavior of the map near the fixed points.
We discuss an invertible version of Furstenberg's `Ergodic CP Shift Systems'. We show that the explicit regularity of these dynamical systems with respect to magnification of measures, implies certain regularity with respect to translation of measures; We show that the translation action on measures is non-singular, and prove pointwise discrete and continuous ergodic theorems for the translation action.
We consider mutually disjoint family of measure preserving transformations $T_1, \cdots, T_k$ on a probability space $(X, \mathcal{B}, μ)$. We obtain the multiple recurrence property of $T_1, \cdots, T_k$ and this result is utilized to derive multiple recurrence of Poincaré type in metric spaces. We also present multiple recurrence property of Khintchine type. Further, we study multiple ergodic averages of disjoint systems and we show that $T_1, \cdots, T_k$ are uniformly jointly ergodic if each $T_i$ is ergodic.
We construct classes of two-dimensional aperiodic Lorentz systems that have infinite horizon and are 'chaotic', in the sense that they are (Poincaré) recurrent, uniformly hyperbolic, ergodic, and the first-return map to any scatterer is $K$-mixing. In the case of the Lorentz tubes (i.e., Lorentz gases in a strip), we define general measured families of systems (\emph{ensembles}) for which the above properties occur with probability 1. In the case of the Lorentz gases in the plane, we define families, endowed with a natural metric, within which the set of all chaotic dynamical systems is uncoun…
We consider the billiard dynamics in a non-compact set of R^d that is constructed as a bi-infinite chain of translated copies of the same d-dimensional polytope. A random configuration of semi-dispersing scatterers is placed in each copy. The ensemble of dynamical systems thus defined, one for each global realization of the scatterers, is called `quenched random Lorentz tube'. Under some fairly general conditions, we prove that every system in the ensemble is hyperbolic and almost every system is recurrent, ergodic, and enjoys some higher chaotic properties.
Using an ergodic inverse theorem obtained in our previous paper, we obtain limit formulae for multiple ergodic averages associated with the action of $\mathbb{F}_{p}^ω$. From this we deduce multiple Khintchine-type recurrence results analogous to those for $\mathbb{Z}$-systems obtained by Bergelson, Host, and Kra, and also present some new counterexamples in this setting.
After relating the notion of $ω$-recurrence in skew products to the range of values taken by partial ergodic sums and Lyapunov exponents, ergodic $\mathbb{Z}$-valued cocycles over an irrational rotation are presented in detail. First, the generic situation is studied and shown to be $1/n$-recurrent. It is then shown that for any $ω(n) <n^{-ε}$, where $ε>1/2$, there are uncountably many infinite staircases (a certain specific cocycle over a rotation) which are \textit{not} $ω$-recurrent, and therefore have positive Lyapunov exponent. A further section makes brief remarks regarding cocycles over…
We discuss multiple versions of rational ergodicity and rational weak mixing for "nice" transformations, including Markov shifts, certain interval maps and hyperbolic geodesic flows. These properties entail multiple recurrence.
We exhibit proofs of two ergodic-theoretic results in the study of multiple recurrence using an analog of the density-increment argument of Roth and Gowers: Furstenberg's Multiple Recurrence Theorem (which implies Szemerédi's Theorem), and a two-dimensional special case of Furstenberg and Katznelson's multidimensional version of this theorem. The second of these requires also an analog of some recent finitary work by Shkredov. Many proofs of these multiple recurrence theorems are now known, but our main goal is to shed some further light on the heuristic correspondence principle that has grown…
Let $(X,B_X,μ,T)$ be a measure-preserving probability system with $T$ is invertible. Suppose that $A\in B_X$ with $μ(A)>0$ and $ε>0$. For any $m\geq 1$, there exist infinitely many primes $p_0,p_1,\ldots,p_m$ with $p_0<\cdots<p_m$ such that $$ μ(A\cap T^{-(p_i-1)}A)\geq μ(A)^2-ε$$ for each $0\leq i\leq m$ and $$ p_m-p_0<C_m, $$ where $C_m>0$ is a constant only depending on $m$, $A$ and $ε$.
We study Poincaré recurrence from a purely geometrical viewpoint. We prove that the metric entropy is given by the exponential growth rate of return times to dynamical balls. This is the geometrical counterpart of Ornstein-Weiss theorem. Moreover, we show that minimal return times to dynamical balls grow linearly with respect to its length. Finally, some interesting relations between recurrence, dimension, entropy and Lyapunov exponents of ergodic measures are given.
The Furstenberg recurrence theorem (or equivalently, Szemerédi's theorem) can be formulated in the language of von Neumann algebras as follows: given an integer $k \geq 2$, an abelian finite von Neumann algebra $(\M,τ)$ with an automorphism $α: \M \to \M$, and a non-negative $a \in \M$ with $τ(a)>0$, one has $\liminf_{N \to \infty} \frac{1}{N} \sum_{n=1}^N \Re τ(a α^n (a) ... α^{(k-1)n} (a)) > 0$; a subsequent result of Host and Kra shows that this limit exists. In particular, $\Re τ(a α^n (a) >... α^{(k-1)n} (a)) > 0$ for all $n$ in a set of positive density. From the von Neumann algebra pers…
In 1975 Szemerédi proved the long-standing conjecture of Erdős and Turán that any subset of $\bbZ$ having positive upper Banach density contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. Szemerédi's proof was entirely combinatorial, but two years later Furstenberg gave a quite different proof of Szemerédi's Theorem by first showing its equivalence to an ergodic-theoretic assertion of multiple recurrence, and then bringing new machinery in ergodic theory to bear on proving that. His ergodic-theoretic approach subsequently yielded several other results in extremal combinatorics, as well as revea…
We define an infinite measure-preserving transformation to have infinite symmetric ergodic index if all finite Cartesian products of the transformation and its inverse are ergodic, and show that infinite symmetric ergodic index does not imply that all products of powers are conservative, so does not imply power weak mixing. We provide a sufficient condition for $k$-fold and infinite symmetric ergodic index and use it to answer a question on the relationship between product conservativity and product ergodicity. We also show that a class of rank-one transformations that have infinite symmetric …
Let $G$ be a countable abelian group. We study ergodic averages associated with configurations of the form $\{ag,bg,(a+b)g\}$ for some $a,b\in\mathbb{Z}$. Under some assumptions on $G$, we prove that the universal characteristic factor for these averages is a factor of a $2$-step nilpotent homogeneous space. As an application we derive a Khintchine type recurrence result. In particular, we prove that for every countable abelian group $G$, if $a,b\in\mathbb{Z}$ are such that $aG,bG,(b-a)G$ and $(a+b)G$ are of finite index in $G$, then for every $E\subset G$ and $\varepsilon>0$ the set $$\{g\in …
We investigate ergodic theory of Poisson suspensions. In the process, we establish close connections between finite and infinite measure preserving ergodic theory. Poisson suspensions thus provide a new approach to infinite measure preserving ergodic theory. Fields investigated here are mixing properties, spectral theory, joinings. We also compare Poisson suspensions to the apparently similar looking Gaussian dynamical systems.
We show the existence, over an arbitrary infinite ergodic $\mathbb{Z}$-dynamical system, of a generic ergodic relatively distal extension of arbitrary countable rank and arbitrary infinite compact extending groups (or more generally, infinite quotients of compact groups) in its canonical distal tower.
A rank-one infinite measure preserving flow $T=(T_t)_{t\in\Bbb R}$ is constructed such that for each $t\ne 0$, the Cartesian powers of the transformation $T_t$ are all ergodic.
We show that there exists a universal gap in the failure of the ergodic theorem for symmetric Birkhoff sums in infinite ergodic theory. In addition, an application of this result to a question of fluctuations of the Birkhoff integrals of horocyclic flows on geometrically finite surfaces is given.
We are interested in the asymptotic behaviour of the first return time of the orbits of a dynamical system into a small neighbourhood of their starting points. We study this quantity in the context of dynamical systems preserving an infinite measure. More precisely, we consider the case of $\mathbb{Z}$-extensions of subshifts of finite type. We also consider a toy probabilistic model to enlight the strategy of our proofs.
We study infinite translation surfaces which are Z-covers of compact translation surfaces. We obtain conditions ensuring that such surfaces have Veech groups which are Fuchsian of the first kind and give a necessary and sufficient condition for recurrence of their straight-line flows. Extending results of Hubert and Schmithusen, we provide examples of infinite non-arithmetic lattice surfaces, as well as surfaces with infinitely generated Veech groups.
We give examples of rank-one transformations that are (weak) doubly ergodic and rigid (so all their cartesian products are conservative), but with non-ergodic $2$-fold cartesian product. We give conditions for rank-one infinite measure-preserving transformations to be (weak) doubly ergodic and for their $k$-fold cartesian product to be conservative. We also show that a (weak) doubly ergodic nonsingular group action is ergodic with isometric coefficients, and that the latter strictly implies W measurable sensitivity.
We consider infinite staircase translation surfaces with varying step sizes. For typical step sizes we show that the translation flow is uniquely ergodic in almost every direction. Our result also hold for typical configurations of the Ehrenfest wind-tree model endowed with the Hausdorff topology. In contrast, we show that the translation flow on a periodic translation surface can not be uniquely ergodic in any direction.
We study the rich behavior of ergodicity and conservativity of Cartesian products of infinite measure preserving transformations. A class of transformations is constructed such that for any subset $R\subset \mathbb Q\cap (0,1)$ there exists $T$ in this class such that $T^p\times T^q$ is ergodic if and only if $\frac{p}{q} \in R$. This contrasts with the finite measure preserving case where $T^p\times T^q$ is ergodic for all nonzero $p$ and $q$ if and only if $T\times T$ is ergodic. We also show that our class is rich in the behavior of conservative products. For each positive integer $k$, a fa…
We show that generic infinite group extensions of geodesic flows on square tiled translation surfaces are ergodic in almost every direction, subject to certain natural constraints. Recently K. Frcaczek and C. Ulcigrai have shown that certain concrete staircases, covers of square-tiled surfaces, are not ergodic in almost every direction. In contrast we show the almost sure ergodicity of other concrete staircases. An appendix provides a combinatorial approach for the study of square-tiled surfaces.
Given $k>0$ and an Abelian countable discrete group $G$ with elements of infinite order, we construct $(i)$ rigid funny rank-one infinite measure preserving (i.m.p.) $G$-actions of ergodic index $k$, $(ii)$ 0-type funny rank-one i.m.p. $G$-actions of ergodic index $k$, $(iii)$ funny rank-one i.m.p. $G$-actions $T$ of ergodic index 2 such that the product $T\times T^{-1}$ is not ergodic. It is shown that $T\times T^{-1}$ is conservative for each funny rank-one $G$-action $T$.
The set of all possible configurations of the Ehrenfest wind-tree model endowed with the Hausdorff topology is a compact metric space. For a typical configuration we show that the wind-tree dynamics has infinite ergodic index in almost every direction. In particular some ergodic theorems can be applied to show that if we start with a large number of initially parallel particles their directions decorrelate as the dynamics evolve answering the question posed by the Ehrenfests.
We construct a class of rank-one infinite measure-preserving transformations such that for each transformation $T$ in the class, the cartesian product $T\times T$ of the transformation with itself is ergodic, but the product $T\times T^{-1}$ of the transformation with its inverse is not ergodic. We also prove that the product of any rank-one transformation with its inverse is conservative, while there are infinite measure-preserving conservative ergodic Markov shifts whose product with their inverse is not conservative.
We define directional recurrence for infinite measure preserving Z^d actions both intrinsically and via the unit suspension flow and prove that the two definitions are equivalent. We study the structure of the set of recurrent directions and show it is always a G_delta set. We construct an example of a recurrent action with no recurrent directions, answering a question posed in a 2007 paper of Daniel J. Rudolph. We also show by example that it is possible for a recurrent action to not be recurrent in an irrational direction even if all its sub-actions are recurrent.
We interpret the Pascal-adic transformation as a generalized induced automorphism (over odometer) and formulate the $σ$-finite analog of odometer which is also known as "Hajian-Kakutani transformation" (former "Ohio state example"). We shortly suggest a sketch of the theory of random walks on the groups on the base of $σ$-finite ergodic theory.
Infinite order linear recurrences are studied via kneading matrices and kneading determinants. The concepts of kneading matrix and kneading determinant of an infinite order linear recurrence, introduced in this work, are defined in a purely linear algebraic context. These concepts extend the classical notions of Frobenius companion matrix to infinite order linear recurrences and to the associated discriminant of finite order linear recurrences. Asymptotic Binet formulas are deduced for general classes of infinite order linear recurrences as a consequence of the analytical properties of the gen…
We provide various counter examples for quantitative multiple recurrence problems for systems with more than one transformation. We show that $\bullet$ There exists an ergodic system $(X,\mathcal{X},μ,T_1,T_2)$ with two commuting transformations such that for every $0<\ell< 4$, there exists $A\in\mathcal{X}$ such that $$μ(A\cap T_{1}^{-n}A\cap T_{2}^{-n}A)<μ(A)^{\ell} \text{ for every } n\neq 0;$$ $\bullet$ There exists an ergodic system $(X,\mathcal{X},μ,T_1,T_2, T_{3})$ with three commuting transformations such that for every $\ell>0$, there exists $A\in\mathcal{X}$ such that $$μ(A\cap T_{1}…
We prove that multiple-recurrence and polynomial-recurrence of invertible infinite measure preserving transformations are both properties which pass to extensions.
1. We answer Michael Gordin's question providing singular spectrum for transformations with homoclinic Bernoulli flows via Poisson suspensions induced by modified Sidon rank-one constructions. 2. We give homoclinic proof of Emmanuel Roy's theorem on multiple mixing of Poisson suspensions, adding new examples to Jonathan King's ergodic homoclinic groups of special zero-entropy transformations. 3. Sasha Prikhod'ko found the fast decay of correlations for some iceberg automorphisms. We get similar correlations for a class of infinite rank-one Sidon transformations. This version is based on "On Mi…
Let $M=X/Γ$ be a geometrically finite negatively curved manifold with fundamental group $Γ$ acting on $X$ by isometries. The purpose of this paper is to study the mixing property of the geodesic flow on $T^1M$, the asymptotic equivalent as $R\longrightarrow+\infty$ of the number of closed geodesics on $M$ of length less than $R$ and of the orbital counting function $\sharp\{γ\inΓ |\ d(o,γ.o)\le R\}$. These properties are well known when the Bowen-Margulis measure on $T^1M$ is finite. We consider here divergent Schottky groups whose Bowen-Margulis measure is infinite and ergodic, and we precise…
Two properties of a dynamical system, rigidity and non-recurrence, are examined in detail. The ultimate aim is to characterize the sequences along which these properties do or do not occur for different classes of transformations. The main focus in this article is to characterize explicitly the structural properties of sequences which can be rigidity sequences or non-recurrent sequences for some weakly mixing dynamical system. For ergodic transformations generally and for weakly mixing transformations in particular there are both parallels and distinctions between the class of rigid sequences …
Assume that $T$ is a conservative ergodic measure preserving transformation of the infinite measure space $(X,\mathcal{A},μ)$.We study the asymptotic behaviour of occupation times of certain subsets of infinite measure. Specifically, we prove a Darling-Kac type distributional limit theorem for occupation times of barely infinite components which are separated from the rest of the space by a set of finite measure with c.f.-mixing return process. In the same setup we show that the ratios of occupation times of two components separated in this way diverge almost everywhere. These abstract results…
We give a criterion which allows to prove non-ergodicity for certain infinite periodic billiards and directional flows on Z-periodic translation surfaces. Our criterion applies in particular to a billiard in an infinite band with periodically spaced vertical barriers and to the Ehrenfest wind-tree model, which is a planar billiard with a $Z^2$-periodic array of rectangular obstacles. We prove that, in these two examples, both for a full measure set of parameters of the billiard tables and for tables with rational parameters, for almost every direction the corresponding billiard flow is not erg…
We survey distributional properties of $\mathbb{R}^d$-valued cocycles of finite measure preserving ergodic transformations (or, equivalently, of stationary random walks in $\mathbb{R}^d$) which determine recurrence or transience.
We discuss selected topics of current research interest in the theory of dynamical systems, with emphasis on dimension theory, multifractal analysis, and quantitative recurrence. The topics include the quantitative versus the qualitative behavior of Poincaré recurrence, the product structure of invariant measures and return times, the dimension of invariant sets and invariant measures, the complexity of the level sets of local quantities from the point of view of Hausdorff dimension, and the conditional variational principles as well as their applications to problems in number theory. We prese…
We present two tools, which could be useful in determining whether or not a non-Homogenous Linear Recurrence can reach a desired rational. First, we derive the determinant that is equal to the ith term in a non-Homogenous Linear Recurrence. We use this to derive the infinite determinant that is zero, if and only if, the desired rational can be reached by some term in the recurrence. Second, we derive an infinite summation of rational Polynomials, such that this summation can be equal to 1, if and only if, the desired rational can be reached by some term in the recurrence.
We introduce concepts of Radon MSJ and Radon disjointness for infinite Radon measure preserving homeomorphisms of the locally compact Cantor space. We construct an uncountable family of pairwise Radon disjoint infinite Chacon like transformations. Every such transformation is Radon strictly ergodic, totally ergodic, asymmetric (not isomorphic to its inverse), has Radon MSJ and possesses Radon joinings whose ergodic components are not joinings.
We give a short proof of the unique ergodicity of the strong stable foliation of the geodesic flow on the frame bundle of a hyperbolic manifold admitting a finite measure of maximal entropy. Equivalently, let G = S0o(n, 1), $Γ$ \textless{} G be a discrete subgroup of G, and G = N AK the Iwasawa decomposition of G. If the geodesic flow on $Γ$\G admits a finite measure of maximal entropy, we prove that the action of N on $Γ$\G by right multiplication admits a unique invariant measure supported on points whose A-orbit does not diverge.
In this note we identify the distributional limits of non-negative, ergodic stationary processes, showing that all are possible. Consequences for infinite ergodic theory are also explored and new examples of distributionally stable- and $α$-rationally ergodic tranformations are presented.
We consider finitely generated free semigroup actions on a compact metric space and obtain quantitative information on Poincaré recurrence, average first return time and hitting frequency for the random orbits induced by the semigroup action. Besides, we relate the recurrence to balls with the rates of expansion of the semigroup's generators and the topological entropy of the semigroup action. Finally, we establish a partial variational principle and prove an ergodic optimization for this kind of dynamical action.
Using ideas borrowed from topological dynamics and ergodic theory we introduce topological and metric versions of the recurrence property for general Markov chains. The main question of interest here is how large is the set of recurrent points. We show that under some mild technical assumptions the set of non recurrent points is of zero reference measure. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a reference measure $m$ (which needs not to be dynamically invariant) to satisfy this property are obtained. These results are new even in the purely deterministic setting.
We show that the absolutely normalized, symmetric Birkhoff sums of positive integrable functions in infinite, ergodic systems never converge pointwise even though they may be almost surely bounded away from zero and infinity.
This work contributes to the programme of studying effective versions of "almost everywhere" theorems in analysis and ergodic theory via algorithmic randomness. We determine the level of randomness needed for a point in a Cantor space $ \{0,1\}^{\NN}$ with the uniform measure and the usual shift so that effective versions of the multiple recurrence theorem of Furstenberg holds for iterations starting at the point. We consider recurrence into closed sets that possess various degrees of effectiveness: clopen, $\PPI$ with computable measure, and $\PPI$. The notions of Kurtz, Schnorr, and \ML\ ran…
