The classical criterion for a circle diffeomorphism to be topologically conjugate to an irrational rigid rotation was given by A. Denjoy. In 1985, one of us (Sullivan) gave a new criterion. There is an example satisfying Denjoy's bounded variation condition rather than Sullivan's Zygmund condition and vice versa. This paper will give the third criterion which is implied by either of the above criteria.
In this paper we prove the $C^1$-density of every $C^r$-conjugacy class in the closed subset of diffeomorphisms of the circle with a given irrational rotation number.
Classical results by Poincaré and Denjoy show that two orientation-preserving $C^2$ diffeomorphisms of the circle are topologically conjugate if and only if they have the same rotation number. We show that there is no possibility of getting such a complete numerical Borel invariant for the conjugacy relation of orientation-preserving circle diffeomorphisms by homeomorphisms with higher degree of regularity. For instance, we consider conjugacy by Hölder homeomorphisms or by $C^k$-diffeomorphisms with $k\in \mathbb{Z}^+ \cup \{\infty\}$. The proof combines techniques from Descriptive Set Theory …
We consider two C^2 Anosov diffeomorphisms in a C^1 neighborhood of a linear hyperbolic automorphism of three dimensional torus with real spectrum. We prove that they are C^1+ conjugate if and only if the differentials of the return maps at corresponding periodic points have the same eigenvalues.
A diffeomorphism $f:\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}^2$ in the plane is Anosov if it has a hyperbolic splitting at every point of the plane. The two known topological conjugacy classes of such diffeomorphisms are linear hyperbolic automorphisms and translations (the existence of Anosov structures for plane translations was originally shown by W. White). P. Mendes conjectured that these are the only topological conjugacy classes for Anosov diffeomorphisms in the plane. We prove that this claim holds when the Anosov diffeomorphism is the time-one map of a flow, via a theorem about foliations invariant …
In this paper we consider the conjugacy classes of diffeomorphisms of the interval, endowed with the $C^1$-topology. We present several results in the spirit of the one below : Given two diffeomorphisms $f,g$ of the interval $[0;1]$ without hyperbolic fixed point, we give a complete answer to the two following questions: - under what conditions does there exist a sequence of smooth conjugates $h_n f h_n^{-1}$ of $f$ tending to $g$ in the $C^1$-topology ? - under what conditions does there exist a continuous path of $C^1$-diffeomorphisms $h_t$ such that $h_t f h_t^{-1}$ tends to $g$ in the $C^1…
We provide a classification of random orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of $\mathbb{S}^1$, up to topological conjugacy of the random dynamical systems generated by i.i.d. iterates of the random homeomorphism. This classification covers all random circle homeomorphisms for which the noise space is a connected Polish space and an additional extremely weak condition is satisfied.
Given closed topological $n$-manifold $M^n$, $n\geq 2$, one introduces the classes of Smale regular $SRH(M^n)$ and Smale semi-regular $SsRH(M^n)$ homeomorphisms of $M^n$ with $SRH(M^n)\subset~SsRH(M^n)$. The class $SRH(M^n)$ contains all Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms, while $SsRH(M^n)$ contains A-diffeomorphisms with trivial and some nontrivial basic sets provided $M^n$ admits a smooth structure. We select invariant sets that determine dynamics of Smale homeomorphisms. This allows us to get necessary and sufficient conditions of conjugacy for $SRH(M^n)$ and $SsRH(M^n)$. We deduce applications fo…
Let $L$ be a hyperbolic automorphism of $\mathbb T^d$, $d\ge3$. We study the smooth conjugacy problem in a small $C^1$-neighborhood $\mathcal U$ of $L$. The main result establishes $C^{1+ν}$ regularity of the conjugacy between two Anosov systems with the same periodic eigenvalue data. We assume that these systems are $C^1$-close to an irreducible linear hyperbolic automorphism $L$ with simple real spectrum and that they satisfy a natural transitivity assumption on certain intermediate foliations. We elaborate on the example of de la Llave of two Anosov systems on $\mathbb T^4$ with the same co…
In this paper we consider the space of smooth conjugacy classes of an Anosov diffeomorphism of the two-torus. The only 2-manifold that supports an Anosov diffeomorphism is the 2-torus, and Franks and Manning showed that every such diffeomorphism is topologically conjugate to a linear example, and furthermore, the eigenvalues at periodic points are a complete smooth invariant. The question arises: what sets of eigenvalues occur as the Anosov diffeomorphism ranges over a topological conjugacy class? This question can be reformulated: what pairs of cohomology classes (one determined by the expand…
The rigidity theory for circle homeomophisms with breaks was studied intensively in the last 20 years. It was proved that under mild conditions of the Diophantine type on the rotation number any two $C^{2+α}$ smooth circle homeomorphisms with a break point are $C^1$ smoothly conjugate to each other, provided that they have the same rotation number and the same size of the break. In this paper we prove that the conjugacy may not be $C^{2-ν}$ even if the maps are analytic outside of the break points. This result shows that the rigidity theory for maps with singularities is very different from th…
We discuss dynamics of skew product maps defined by circle diffeomorphisms forced by expanding circle maps. We construct an open class of such systems that are robust topologically mixing and for which almost all points in the same fiber converge under iteration. This property follows from the construction of an invariant attracting graph in the natural extension, a skew product of circle diffeomorphisms forced by a solenoid homeomorphism.
Let $\Diffeo=\Diffeo(\R)$ denote the group of infinitely-differentiable diffeomorphisms of the real line $\R$, under the operation of composition, and let $\Diffeo^+$ be the subgroup of diffeomorphisms of degree +1, i.e. orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms. We show how to reduce the problem of determining whether or not two given elements $f,g\in \Diffeo$ are conjugate in $\Diffeo$ to associated conjugacy problems in the subgroup $\Diffeo^+$. The main result concerns the case when $f$ and $g$ have degree -1, and specifies (in an explicit and verifiable way) precisely what must be added to t…
In this paper, we study conjugacy invariants for 2-dimensional diffeomorphisms with homoclinic cubic tangencies (two-sided tangencies of the lowest order) under certain open conditions. Ordinary arguments used in past studies of conjugacy invariants associated with one-sided tangencies do not work in the two-sided case. We present a new method which is applicable to the two-sided case.
In a non-compact setting, the notion of hyperbolicity, and the associated structure of stable and unstable manifolds (for unbounded orbits), is highly dependent on the choice of metric used to define it. We consider the simplest version of this, the analogue for the plane of Anosov diffeomorphisms, studied earlier by W. White and P. Mendes. The two known topological conjugacy classes of such diffeomorphisms are linear hyperbolic automorphisms and translations. We show that if the structure of stable and unstable manifolds is required to be preserved by these conjugacies, the number of distinct…
Given any Liouville number $α$, it is shown that various subspaces are $C^\infty$-dense in the space of the orientation preserving $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms of the circle with rotation number $α$.
Given any Liouville number $α$, it is shown that the nullity of the Hausdorff dimension of the invariant measure is generic in the space of the orientation preserving $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms of the circle with rotation number $α$.
We study groups of circle diffeomorphisms whose action on the cylinder $\mathcal C=\mathbb S^1\times \mathbb S^1\setminus Δ$ preserves a volume form. We first show that such a group is topologically conjugate to a subgroup of $\rm{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)$, then discuss the existence of a differentiable conjugacy.
Lens spaces are the only 3-manifolds that admit gradient-like flows with four fixed points. This is an immediate corollary of Morse inequality and of the Morse function with four critical points existence. A similar question for gradient-like diffeomorphisms is open. Solution can be approached by describing a complete topological conjugacy invariant of the class of considered diffeomorphisms and constructing of representative diffeomorphism for every conjugacy class by the abstract invariant. Ch. Bonnati and V. Z. Grines proved that the topological conjugacy class of Morse-Smale flows with uni…
We consider pointwise, box, and Hausdorff dimensions of invariant measures for circle diffeomorphisms. We discuss the cases of rational, Diophantine, and Liouville rotation numbers. Our main result is that for any Liouville number $τ$ there exists a $C^\infty$ circle diffeomorphism with rotation number $τ$ such that the pointwise and box dimensions of its unique invariant measure do not exist. Moreover, the lower pointwise and lower box dimensions can equal any value $0\le β\le 1$.
We carry the argument used in the proof of the Theorem of Denjoy over to the quasiperiodically forced case. Thus we derive that if a system of quasiperiodically forced circle diffeomorphisms with bounded variation of the derivative has no invariant graphs with a certain kind of topological regularity, then the system is topologically transitive.
Given a group G, the conjugacy problem in G is the problem of giving an effective procedure for determining whether or not two given elements f, g of G are conjugate, i.e. whether there exists h belonging to G with fh = hg. This paper is about the conjugacy problem in the group Diffeo(I) of all diffeomorphisms of an interval I in R. There is much classical work on the subject, solving the conjugacy problem for special classes of maps. Unfortunately, it is also true that many results and arguments known to the experts are difficult to find in the literature, or simply absent. We try to repair t…
We consider the rotation number $ρ(t)$ of a diffeomorphism $f_t=R_t\circ f$, where $R_t$ is the rotation by $t$ and $f$ is an orientation preserving $C^\infty$ diffeomorphism of the circle $S^1$. We shall show that if $ρ(t)$ is irrational $$\limsup_{t'\to t}(ρ(t')-ρ(t))/(t'-t)\geq 1.$$
We show that no C^2 circle diffeomorphism of irrational rotation number has invariant 1-distributions other than (scalar multiples of) the invariant measure. We also show that this is false in the C^1 context by giving both minimal and non-minimal examples.
We prove that if d is an integer number bigger than 1 and f_1,...,f_d are commuting circle diffeomorphisms respectively of class C^(1+τ_k), where τ_1 + ... + τ_k > 1, then these maps are simultaneously conjugate to rotations provided that their rotation numbers are independent over the rationals.
Our aim in this note is to present some of the crucial contributions of Jean-Christophe Yoccoz to the theory of circle diffeomorphisms. We start with a short historical account before exposing Yoccoz' work. Then we give a brief description of the main conceptual and technical tools of the theory, with a focus on describing Yoccoz' work and contributions.
We consider group-valued cocycles over a partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism which is accessible volume-preserving and center bunched. We study cocycles with values in the group of invertible continuous linear operators on a Banach space. We describe properties of holonomies for fiber bunched cocycles and establish their Holder regularity. We also study cohomology of cocycles and its connection with holonomies. We obtain a result on regularity of a measurable conjugacy, as well as a necessary and sufficient condition for existence of a contionuous conjugacy between two cocycles.
We show that a finitely generated group of analytic diffeomorphisms that is expanding and locally discrete in the analytic category is analytically conjugate to a uniform lattice of a finite covering of the group of projective maps of the projective line, acting naturally on the corresponding finite covering of the projective line.
We characterize the maximal entropy measures of partially hyperbolic C^2 diffeomorphisms whose center foliations form circle bundles, by means of suitable finite sets of saddle points, that we call skeletons. In the special case of 3-dimensional nilmanifolds other than the torus, this entails the following dichotomy: either the diffeomorphism is a rotation extension of an Anosov diffeomorphism -- in which case there is a unique maximal measure, with full support and zero center Lyapunov exponents -- or there exist exactly two ergodic maximal measures, both hyperbolic and whose center Lyapunov …
The formal class of a germ of diffeomorphism $ϕ$ is embeddable in a flow if $ϕ$ is formally conjugated to the exponential of a germ of vector field. We prove that there are complex analytic unipotent germs of diffeomorphisms at $({\mathbb C}^{n},0)$ ($n>1$) whose formal class is non-embeddable. The examples are inside a family in which the non-embeddability is of geometrical type. The proof relies on the properties of some linear functional operators that we obtain through the study of polynomial families of diffeomorphisms via potential theory.
Let $f$ and $\tilde{f}$ be two circle diffeomorphisms with a break point, with the same irrational rotation number of bounded type, the same size of the break $c$ and satisfying a certain Zygmund type smoothness condition depending on a parameter $γ>2.$ We prove that under a certain condition imposed on the break size $c$, the diffeomorphisms $f$ and $\tilde{f}$ are $C^{1+ω_γ}$-smoothly conjugate to each other, where $ω_γ(δ)=|\log δ|^{-(γ/2-1)}.$
In this paper we give a complete topological classification of orientation preserving Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms on orientable closed surfaces. For MS diffeomorphisms with relatively simple behaviour it was known that such a classification can be given through a directed graph, a three-colour directed graph or by a certain topological object, called a scheme. Here we will assign to any MS surface diffeomorphism a finite amount of data which completely determines its topological conjugacy class. Moreover, we show that associated to any abstract version of this data, there exists a unique conju…
We study topological properties of semi-group actions on the circle by orientation-preserving homeomorhisms. We prove that a generic action either possesses a forward-invariant interval-domain (i.e. a finite union of disjoint circle arcs), or is two-sided minimal (and, moreover, by a small perturbation one can create a map with arbitrary rotation number in the semigroup). For the minimal case, we also study conditions required for global synchronization.
This paper is concerned about the orbit equivalence types of $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms of $S^1$ seen as nonsingular automorphisms of $(S^1,m)$, where $m$ is the Lebesgue measure. Given any Liouville number $α$, it is shown that each of the subspace formed by type ${\rm II}_1$, ${\rm II}_\infty$, ${\rm III}_λ$ ($λ>1$), ${\rm III}_\infty$ and ${\rm III}_0$ diffeomorphisms are $C^\infty$-dense in the space of the orientation preserving $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms with rotation number $α$.
In this paper we answer positively a question of whether it is possible for a circle diffeomorphism with breaks to be smoothly conjugate to a rigid rotation in the case when its breaks are lying on pairwise distinct trajectories. An example constructed is a piecewise linear circle homeomorphism that has four break points lying on distinct trajectories, and whose invariant measure is absolutely continuous w.r.t.\ the Lebesgue measure. The irrational rotation number for our example can be chosen a Roth number, but not of bounded type.
Let $f$ be an orientation-preserving circle diffeomorphism with irrational rotation number and with a break point $ξ_{0},$ that is, its derivative $f'$ has a jump discontinuity at this point. Suppose that $f'$ satisfies a certain Zygmund condition dependent on a parameter $γ>0.$ We prove that the renormalizations of $f$ are approximated by Möbius transformations in $C^{1}$-norm if $γ\in (0,1]$ and they are approximated in $C^{2}$-norm if $γ\in (1,+\infty).$ It is also shown, that the coefficients of Möbius transformations get asymptotically linearly dependent.
We consider finitely generated groups of real-analytic circle diffeomorphisms. We show that if such a group admits an exceptional minimal set (i.e., a minimal invariant Cantor set), then its Lebesgue measure is zero; moreover, there are only finitely many orbits of connected components of its complement. For the case of minimal actions, we show that if the underlying group is (algebraically) free, then the action is ergodic with respect to the Lebesgue measure. This provides first answers to questions due to É. Ghys, G. Hector and D. Sullivan.
Let $d\geq 2$ be an integer and let $ω_1,\cdots ,ω_d$ be moduli of continuity in a specified class which contains the moduli of Hölder continuity. Let $f_k$, $k\in\{1,\cdots,d\}$, be $C^{1+ω_k}$ orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of the circle and $f_1,\cdots, f_d$ commute with each other. We prove that if the rotation numbers of $f_k$'s are independent over the rationals and $ω_1(t)\cdotsω_d(t)=tω(t)$ with $\lim_{t\rightarrow 0^+}ω(t)=0$, then $f_1,\cdots,f_d$ are simultaneously (topologically) conjugate to rigid rotations.
In this paper we study $C^1$-structurally stable diffeomorphisms, that is, $C^1$ Axiom A diffeomorphisms with the strong transversality condition. In contrast to the case of dynamics restricted to a hyperbolic basic piece, structurally stable diffeomorphisms are in general not expansive and the conjugacies between $C^1$-close structurally stable diffeomorphisms may be non-unique, even if there are assumed $C^0$-close to the identity. Here we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a structurally stable diffeomorphism to admit a dense subset of points with expansiveness and sensitivity to…
We prove that if two analytic multicritical circle maps with the same bounded type rotation number are topologically conjugate by a conjugacy which matches the critical points of the two maps while preserving the orders of their criticalities, then the conjugacy necessarily has $C^{1+α}$ regularity, where $α$ depends only on the bound on the type of the rotation number. We then extend this rigidity result to $C^3$-smooth bi-cubic circle maps.
We prove quantitative statistical stability results for a large class of small $C^{0}$ perturbations of circle diffeomorphisms with irrational rotation numbers. We show that if the rotation number is Diophantine the invariant measure varies in a Hölder way under perturbation of the map and the Hölder exponent depends on the Diophantine type of the rotation number. The set of admissable perturbations includes the ones coming from spatial discretization and hence numerical truncation. We also show linear response for smooth perturbations that preserve the rotation number, as well as for more gen…
In this paper we study quasi-symmetric conjugations of $C^2$ weakly order-preserving circle maps with a flat interval. Under the assumption that the maps have the same rotation number of bounded type and that bounded geometry holds we construct a quasi-symmetric conjugation between their non-wandering sets. Further, this conjugation is extended to a quasi-symmetric circle homeomorphism. Our proof techniques hinge on real-dynamic methods allowing us to construct the conjugation under general and natural assumptions.
We study perturbations of a partially hyperbolic toral automorphism L which is diagonalizable over C and has a dense center foliation. For a small perturbation of L with a smooth center foliation we establish existence of a smooth leaf conjugacy to L. We also show that if a small perturbation of an ergodic irreducible L has smooth center foliation and is bi-Holder conjugate to L, then the conjugacy is smooth. As a corollary, we show that for any symplectic perturbation of such an L any bi-Holder conjugacy must be smooth. For a totally irreducible L with two-dimensional center, we establish a n…
We analyze a class of deformations of Anosov diffeomorphisms: these $C^0$-small, but $C^1$-macroscopic deformations break the topological conjugacy class but leave the high entropy dynamics unchanged. More precisely, there is a partial conjugacy between the deformation and the original Anosov system that identifies all invariant probability measures with entropy close to the maximum. We also establish expansiveness around those measures. This class of deformations contains many of the known nonhyperbolic robustly transitive diffeomorphisms. In particular, we show that it includes a class of no…
We show that if $f \colon S^1 \times S^1 \to S^1 \times S^1$ is $C^2$, with $f(x, t) = (f_t(x), t)$, and the rotation number of $f_t$ is equal to $t$ for all $t \in S^1$, then $f$ is topologically conjugate to the linear Dehn twist of the torus $(1&1 0&1)$. We prove a differentiability result where the assumption that the rotation number of $f_t$ is $t$ is weakened to say that the rotation number is strictly monotone in $t$.
We examine the itinerary of $0\in S^{1}=\R/\Z$ under the rotation by $α\in\R\bs\Q$. The motivating question is: if we are given only the itinerary of 0 relative to $I\subset S^{1}$, a finite union of closed intervals, can we recover $α$ and $I$? We prove that the itineraries do determine $α$ and $I$ up to certain equivalences. Then we present elementary methods for finding $α$ and $I$. Moreover, if $g:S^{1}\to S^{1}$ is a $C^{2}$, orientation preserving diffeomorphism with an irrational rotation number, then we can use the orbit itinerary to recover the rotation number up to certain equivalenc…
Given any smooth circle diffeomorphism with irrational rotation number, we show that its invariant probability measure is the only invariant distribution (up to multiplication by a real constant). As a consequence of this, we show that the space of real smooth coboundaries of such a diffeomorphism is closed if and only if its rotation number is Diophantine.
We show that a $C^{1+bv}$ circle diffeomorphism with absolutely continuous derivative and irrational rotation number can be conjugated to diffeomorphisms that are $C^{1+bv}$ arbitrary close to the corresponding rotation. This improves a theorem of M.~Herman, who established the same result but starting with a $C^2$ diffeomorphism. We prove that the same holds for countable Abelian groups of circle diffeomorphisms acting freely, a result that is new even in the $C^{\infty}$ context. Related results and examples concerning the asymptotic distortion of diffeomorphisms are presented. Along this pa…