A survey of recent results on the dependence of Lyapunov exponents on the underlying data.

Over the last few years Pohl (partly jointly with coauthors) has developed dual ‘slow/fast’ transfer operator approaches to automorphic functions, resonances, and Selberg zeta functions for a certain class of hyperbolic surfaces $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\backslash \mathbb{H}$ with cusps and all finite-dimensional unitary representations $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$. The eigenfunctions with eigenvalue 1 of the fast transfer operators determine the zeros of the Selberg zeta function for $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4},\unicode[STIX]{x1D712})$. Further, if $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ is cofinite and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ is the trivial one-dimensional representation then highly regular eigenfunctions with eigenvalue 1 of the slow transfer operators characterize Maass cusp forms for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$. Conjecturally, this characterization extends to more general automorphic functions as well as to residues at resonances. In this article we study, without relying on Selberg theory, the relation between the eigenspaces of these two types of transfer operators for any Hecke triangle surface $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\backslash \mathbb{H}$ of finite or infinite area and any finite-dimensional unitary representation $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ of the Hecke triangle group $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$. In particular, we provide explicit isomorphisms between relevant subspaces. This solves a conjecture by Möller and Pohl, characterizes some of the zeros of the Selberg zeta functions independently of the Selberg trace formula, and supports the previously mentioned conjectures.

The purpose of this paper is to establish mixing rates for infinite measure preserving almost Anosov diffeomorphisms on the two-dimensional torus. The main task is to establish regular variation of the tails of the first return time to the complement of a neighbourhood of the neutral fixed point.

We construct an infinite family of odd-symplectic forms (also known as Hamiltonian structures) on the $3$-sphere $S^{3}$ that do not admit a symplectic cobordism to the standard contact structure on $S^{3}$. This answers in the negative a question raised by Joel Fish motivated by the search for minimal characteristic flows.

We consider the transfer operators of non-uniformly expanding maps for potentials of various regularity, and show that a specific property of potentials (‘flatness’) implies a Ruelle–Perron–Frobenius theorem and a decay of the transfer operator of the same speed as that entailed by the constant potential. The method relies neither on Markov partitions nor on inducing, but on functional analysis and duality, through the simplest principles of optimal transportation. As an application, we notably show that for any map of the circle which is expanding outside an arbitrarily flat neutral point, the set of Hölder potentials exhibiting a spectral gap is dense in the uniform topology. The method applies in a variety of situations, including Pomeau–Manneville maps with regular enough potentials, or uniformly expanding maps of low regularity with their natural potential; we also recover in a united fashion variants of several previous results.

The complexity function of an infinite word $w$ on a finite alphabet $A$ is the sequence counting, for each non-negative $n$, the number of words of length $n$ on the alphabet $A$ that are factors of the infinite word $w$. For any given function $f$ with exponential growth, we introduced in [Complexity and fractal dimensions for infinite sequences with positive entropy. Commun. Contemp. Math. to appear] the notion of word entropy$E_{W}(f)$ associated to $f$ and we described the combinatorial structure of sets of infinite words with a complexity function bounded by $f$. The goal of this work is to give estimates on the word entropy $E_{W}(f)$ in terms of the limiting lower exponential growth rate of $f$.

The fact that the euclidean algorithm eventually terminates is pervasive in mathematics. In the language of continued fractions, it can be stated by saying that the orbits of rational points under the Gauss map $x\mapsto x^{-1}-\lfloor x^{-1}\rfloor$ eventually reach zero. Analogues of this fact for Gauss maps defined over quadratic number fields have relevance in the theory of flows on translation surfaces, and have been established via powerful machinery, ultimately relying on the Veech dichotomy. In this paper, for each commensurability class of non-cocompact triangle groups of quadratic invariant trace field, we construct a Gauss map whose defining matrices generate a group in the class; we then provide a direct and self-contained proof of termination. As a byproduct, we provide a new proof of the fact that non-cocompact triangle groups of quadratic invariant trace field have the projective line over that field as the set of cross-ratios of cusps. Our proof is based on an analysis of the action of non-negative matrices with quadratic integer entries on the Weil height of points. As a consequence of the analysis, we show that long symbolic sequences in the alphabet of our maps can be effectively split into blocks of predetermined shape having the property that the height of points which obey the sequence and belong to the base field decreases strictly at each block end. Since the height cannot decrease infinitely, the termination property follows.

Suppose that $f$ is a transcendental entire function. In 2011, Rippon and Stallard showed that the union of the escaping set with infinity is always connected. In this paper we consider the related question of whether the union with infinity of the bounded orbit set, or the bungee set, can also be connected. We give sufficient conditions for these sets to be connected and an example of a transcendental entire function for which all three sets are simultaneously connected. This function lies, in fact, in the Speiser class.

It is known that for many transcendental entire functions the escaping set has a topological structure known as a spider’s web. We use our results to give a large class of functions in the Eremenko–Lyubich class for which the escaping set is not a spider’s web. Finally, we give a novel topological criterion for certain sets to be a spider’s web.

We develop a variational method for constructing positive entropy invariant measures of Lagrangian systems without assuming transversal intersections of stable and unstable manifolds, and without restrictions to the size of non-integrable perturbations. We apply it to a family of $2\frac{1}{2}$ degrees of freedom a priori unstable Lagrangians, and show that if we assume that there is no topological obstruction to diffusion (precisely formulated in terms of topological non-degeneracy of minima of the Peierls barrier), then there exists a vast family of ‘horseshoes’, such as ‘shadowing’ ergodic positive entropy measures having precisely any closed set of invariant tori in its support. Furthermore, we give bounds on the topological entropy and the ‘drift acceleration’ in any part of a region of instability in terms of a certain extremal value of the Fréchet derivative of the action functional, generalizing the angle of splitting of separatrices. The method of construction is new, and relies on study of formally gradient dynamics of the action (coupled parabolic semilinear partial differential equations on unbounded domains). We apply recently developed techniques of precise control of the local evolution of energy (in this case the Lagrangian action), energy dissipation and flux.