An area-preserving homeomorphism isotopic to the identity is said to have rational rotation direction if its rotation vector is a real multiple of a rational class. We give a short proof that any area-preserving homeomorphism of a compact surface of genus at least two, which is isotopic to the identity and has rational rotation direction, is either the identity or has periodic points of unbounded minimal period. This answers a question of Ginzburg and Seyfaddini and can be regarded as a Conley conjecture-type result for symplectic homeomorphisms of surfaces beyond the Hamiltonian case. We also discuss several variations, such as maps preserving arbitrary Borel probability measures with full support, maps that are not isotopic to the identity and maps on lower genus surfaces. The proofs of the main results combine topological arguments with periodic Floer homology.

We study the descriptive complexity of sets of points defined by restricting the statistical behaviour of their orbits in dynamical systems on Polish spaces. Particular examples of such sets are the sets of generic points of invariant Borel probability measures, but we also consider much more general sets (for example, $\alpha $-Birkhoff regular sets and the irregular set appearing in the multifractal analysis of ergodic averages of a continuous real-valued function). We show that many of these sets are Borel in general, and all these are Borel when we assume that our space is compact. We provide examples of these sets being non-Borel, properly placed at the first level of the projective hierarchy (they are complete analytic or co-analytic). This proves that the compactness assumption is, in some cases, necessary to obtain Borelness. When these sets are Borel, we measure their descriptive complexity using the Borel hierarchy. We show that the sets of interest are located at most at the third level of the hierarchy. We also use a modified version of the specification property to show that these sets are properly located at the third level of the hierarchy for many dynamical systems. To demonstrate that the specification property is a sufficient, but not necessary, condition for maximal descriptive complexity of a set of generic points, we provide an example of a compact minimal system with an invariant measure whose set of generic points is $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^0_3$-complete.

Consider, for any integer $n\ge 3$, the set $\operatorname {\mathrm {Pos}}_n$ of all n-periodic tree patterns with positive topological entropy and the set $\operatorname {\mathrm {Irr}}_n\subset \operatorname {\mathrm {Pos}}_n$ of all n-periodic irreducible tree patterns. The aim of this paper is to determine the elements of minimum entropy in the families $\operatorname {\mathrm {Pos}}_n$, $\operatorname {\mathrm {Irr}}_n$ and $\operatorname {\mathrm {Pos}}_n\setminus \operatorname {\mathrm {Irr}}_n$. Let $\unicode{x3bb} _n$ be the unique real root of the polynomial $x^n-2x-1$ in $(1,+\infty )$. We explicitly construct an irreducible n-periodic tree pattern $\mathcal {Q}_n$ whose entropy is $\log (\unicode{x3bb} _n)$. We prove that this entropy is minimum in $\operatorname {\mathrm {Pos}}_n$. Since the pattern $\mathcal {Q}_n$ is irreducible, $\mathcal {Q}_n$ also minimizes the entropy in the family $\operatorname {\mathrm {Irr}}_n$. We also prove that the minimum positive entropy in the set $\operatorname {\mathrm {Pos}}_n\setminus \operatorname {\mathrm {Irr}}_n$ (which is non-empty only for composite integers $n\ge 6$) is $\log (\unicode{x3bb} _{n/p})/p$, where p is the least prime factor of n.

Starting from a uniquely ergodic action of a locally compact group G on a compact space $X_0$, we consider non-commutative skew-product extensions of the dynamics, on the crossed product $C(X_0)\rtimes _\alpha {\mathbb Z}$, through a $1$-cocycle of G in ${\mathbb T}$, with $\alpha $ commuting with the given dynamics. We first prove that any two such skew-product extensions are conjugate if and only if the corresponding cocycles are cohomologous. We then study unique ergodicity and unique ergodicity with respect to the fixed-point subalgebra by characterizing both in terms of the cocycle assigning the dynamics. The set of all invariant states is also determined: it is affinely homeomorphic with ${\mathcal P}({\mathbb T})$, the Borel probability measures on the one-dimensional torus ${\mathbb T}$, as long as the system is not uniquely ergodic. Finally, we show that unique ergodicity with respect to the fixed-point subalgebra of a skew-product extension amounts to the uniqueness of an invariant conditional expectation onto the fixed-point subalgebra.

We study the computational problem of rigorously describing the asymptotic behavior of topological dynamical systems up to a finite but arbitrarily small pre-specified error. More precisely, we consider the limit set of a typical orbit, both as a spatial object (attractor set) and as a statistical distribution (physical measure), and we prove upper bounds on the computational resources of computing descriptions of these objects with arbitrary accuracy. We also study how these bounds are affected by different dynamical constraints and provide several examples showing that our bounds are sharp in general. In particular, we exhibit a computable interval map having a unique transitive attractor with Cantor set structure supporting a unique physical measure such that both the attractor and the measure are non-computable.

We obtain asymptotics for the average value taken by a Vassiliev invariant on knots appearing as periodic orbits of an Axiom A flow on $S^3.$ The methods used also give asymptotics for the writhe of periodic orbits. Our results are analogous to those of G. Contreras [Average linking numbers of closed orbits of hyperbolic flows. J. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 51 (1995), 614–624] for average linking numbers.

We study linear random walks on the torus and show a quantitative equidistribution statement, under the assumption that the Zariski closure of the acting group is semisimple.

We prove that almost every interval exchange transformation, with an associated translation surface of genus $g\geq 2$, can be non-trivially and isometrically embedded in a family of piecewise isometries. In particular, this proves the existence of invariant curves for piecewise isometries, reminiscent of Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser (KAM) curves for area-preserving maps, which are not unions of circle arcs or line segments.

We develop combinatorial tools to study partial rigidity within the class of minimal $\mathcal {S}$-adic subshifts. By leveraging the combinatorial data of well-chosen Kakutani–Rokhlin partitions, we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for partial rigidity. Additionally, we provide an explicit expression to compute the partial rigidity rate and an associated partial rigidity sequence. As applications, we compute the partial rigidity rate for a variety of constant length substitution subshifts, such as the Thue–Morse subshift, where we determine a partial rigidity rate of 2/3. We also exhibit non-rigid substitution subshifts with partial rigidity rates arbitrarily close to 1 and, as a consequence, using products of the aforementioned substitutions, we obtain that any number in $[0, 1]$ is the partial rigidity rate of a system.

We study the global behavior of the renormalization operator on a specially constructed Banach manifold that has cubic critical circle maps on its boundary and circle diffeomorphisms in its interior. As an application, we prove results on smoothness of irrational Arnold tongues.

Many continua that admit a transitive homeomorphism may be found in the literature. The circle is probably the simplest non-degenerate continuum that admits such a homeomorphism. However, most of the known examples of such continua have a complicated topological structure. For example, they are indecomposable (such as the pseudo-arc or the Knaster bucket-handle continuum), or they are not indecomposable but have some other complicated topological structure, such as a dense set of ramification points (such as the Sierpiński carpet) or a dense set of end-points (such as the Lelek fan). In this paper, we continue our mission of finding continua with simpler topological structures that admit a transitive homeomorphism. We construct a transitive homeomorphism on the Cantor fan. In our approach, we use two different techniques, each of them giving two constructions of a transitive homeomorphism on the Cantor fan: one technique using quotient spaces of products of compact metric spaces and Cantor sets, and one using Mahavier products of closed relations on compact metric spaces. We also demonstrate how our technique using Mahavier products of closed relations may be used to construct a transitive function f on a Cantor fan X such that $\varprojlim (X,f)$ is a Lelek fan.

We consider the system $\dot {x}=(A+ P(t,\epsilon )) x, x\in \mathbb {R}^{3}, $ where $A, P$ are both three-dimensional skew symmetric matrices, A is a constant matrix with eigenvalues $\pm i\unicode{x3bb} $ and 0, $P(t,\epsilon )$ is $C^{m}(m=0,1)$-smooth in $\epsilon $ and analytic quasi-periodic with respect to t with basic frequencies $\omega =(1,\alpha )$, with $\alpha $ being irrational, and $\epsilon $ is a small parameter. Under some non-resonant conditions about the basic frequencies and the eigenvalues of the constant matrix and without any non-degeneracy condition, it is proved that for many sufficiently small parameters, this system can be reduced to a rotation system. Furthermore, if the basic frequencies satisfy that $ 0\leq \beta (\alpha ) < r,$ where $\beta (\alpha )=\limsup \nolimits _{n\rightarrow \infty } {\ln q_{n+1}}/{q_{n}},$ $q_{n}$ is the sequence of denominations of the best rational approximations for $\alpha \in \mathbb {R} \setminus \mathbb {Q},$ r is the initial radius of analytic domain, it is proved that for many sufficiently small parameters, this system can be reduced to a constant system.

In this article, we extend, with a great deal of generality, many results regarding the Hausdorff dimension of certain dynamical Diophantine coverings and shrinking target sets associated with a conformal iterated function system (IFS) previously established under the so-called open set condition. The novelty of the result we present is that it holds regardless of any separation assumption on the underlying IFS and thus extends to a large class of IFSs the previous results obtained by Beresnevitch and Velani [A mass transference principle and the Duffin–Schaeffer conjecture for Hausdorff measures. Ann. of Math. (2) 164(3) (2006), 971–992] and by Barral and Seuret [The multifractal nature of heterogeneous sums of Dirac masses. Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 144(3) (2008), 707–727]. Moreover, it will be established that if S is conformal and satisfies mild separation assumptions (which are, for instance, satisfied for any self-similar IFS on $\mathbb {R}$ with algebraic parameters, no exact overlaps and similarity dimension smaller than $1$), then the classical result of Hill–Velani regarding the shrinking target problem associated with a conformal IFS satisfying the open set condition (and for which the Hausdorff measure was later computed by Allen and Barany [On the Hausdorff measure of shrinking target sets on self-conformal sets. Mathematika 67 (2021), 807–839]) can be extended.

We prove structural results for measure-preserving systems, called Furstenberg systems, naturally associated with bounded multiplicative functions. We show that for all pretentious multiplicative functions, these systems always have rational discrete spectrum and, as a consequence, zero entropy. We obtain several other refined structural and spectral results, one consequence of which is that the Archimedean characters are the only pretentious multiplicative functions that have Furstenberg systems with trivial rational spectrum, another is that a pretentious multiplicative function has ergodic Furstenberg systems if and only if it pretends to be a Dirichlet character, and a last one is that for any fixed pretentious multiplicative function, all its Furstenberg systems are isomorphic. We also study structural properties of Furstenberg systems of a class of multiplicative functions, introduced by Matomäki, Radziwiłł, and Tao, which lie in the intermediate zone between pretentiousness and strong aperiodicity. In a work of the last two authors and Gomilko, several examples of this class with exotic ergodic behavior were identified, and here we complement this study and discover some new unexpected phenomena. Lastly, we prove that Furstenberg systems of general bounded multiplicative functions have divisible spectrum. When these systems are obtained using logarithmic averages, we show that a trivial rational spectrum implies a strong dilation invariance property, called strong stationarity, but, quite surprisingly, this property fails when the systems are obtained using Cesàro averages.

We investigate and compare applications of the Zilber–Pink conjecture and dynamical methods to rigidity problems for arithmetic real and complex hyperbolic lattices. Along the way, we obtain new general results about reconstructing a variation of Hodge structure from its typical Hodge locus that may be of independent interest. Applications to Siu’s immersion problem are also discussed, the most general of which only requires the hypothesis that infinitely many closed geodesics map to proper totally geodesic subvarieties under the immersion.

This paper analyzes the initial value problem for the Toda lattice with almost periodic initial data: let $J(t; J_{0})$ denote the family of Jacobi matrices which are solutions of the Toda flow equation with initial condition $J(0; J_{0})=J_{0},$ then, the given almost periodic datum $J_{0}$ is a discrete linear Schrödinger operator with almost periodic potential, which plays a fundamental role in our considerations. We show that, under some given hypotheses, the spectrum of the Schrödinger operator is pure absolute continuous and homogeneous (measure-theoretically) by establishing exponential asymptotics on the size of spectral gaps. These two conclusions enable us to show the boundedness and almost periodicity in the time of solutions for Toda lattice equation with almost periodic initial data. As a consequence, our result presents a positive answer to the discrete Deift’s conjecture [Some open problems in random matrix theory and the theory of integrable systems. Integrable Systems and Random Matrices (Contemporary Mathematics, 458). American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2008, pp. 419–430; Some open problems in random matrix theory and the theory of integrable systems. II. SIGMA Symmetry Integrability Geom. Methods Appl. 13 (2017), Paper no. 016].

For a class of potentials $\psi $ satisfying a condition depending on the roof function of a suspension (semi)flow, we show an EKP inequality, which can be interpreted as a Hölder continuity property in the weak${^*}$ norm of measures, with respect to the pressure of those measures, where the Hölder exponent depends on the $L^q$-space to which $\psi $ belongs. This also captures a new type of phase transition for intermittent (semi)flows (and maps).

The rank of a tiling’s return module depends on the geometry of its tiles and is not a topological invariant. However, the rank of the first Čech cohomology $\check H^1(\Omega )$ gives upper and lower bounds for the rank of the return module. For all sufficiently large patches, the rank of the return module is at most the rank of $\check H^1(\Omega )$. For a generic choice of tile shapes and an arbitrary reference patch, the rank of the return module is at least the rank of $\check H^1(\Omega )$. Therefore, for generic tile shapes and all sufficiently large patches, the rank of the return module is equal to the rank of $\check H^1(\Omega )$.

Given a number field $\mathbb {K} \subset \mathbb {C}$ that is not contained in $\mathbb {R}$, we prove the existence of a dense set (with respect to the topology of local uniform convergence) of entire maps $f \colon \mathbb {C} \rightarrow \mathbb {C}$ whose preperiodic points and multipliers all lie in $\mathbb {K}$. This contrasts with the case of rational maps. In addition, we show that there exists an escaping quadratic-like map that is not conjugate to an affine escaping quadratic-like map and whose multipliers all lie in $\mathbb {Q}$.

Krieger’s embedding theorem provides necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary subshift to embed in a given topologically mixing $\mathbb {Z}$-subshift of finite type. For certain families of $\mathbb {Z}^d$-subshifts of finite type, Lightwood characterized the aperiodic subsystems. In the current paper, we prove a new embedding theorem for a class of subshifts of finite type over any countable abelian group. Our theorem provides necessary and sufficient conditions for an arbitrary subshift X to embed inside a given subshift of finite type Y that satisfies a certain natural condition. For the particular case of $\mathbb {Z}$-subshifts, our new theorem coincides with Krieger’s theorem. Our result gives the first complete characterization of the subsystems of the multidimensional full shift $Y= \{0,1\}^{\mathbb {Z}^d}$. The natural condition on the target subshift Y, introduced explicitly for the first time in the current paper, is called the map extension property. It was introduced implicitly by Mike Boyle in the early 1980s for $\mathbb {Z}$-subshifts and is closely related to the notion of an absolute retract, introduced by Borsuk in the 1930s. A $\mathbb {Z}$-subshift has the map extension property if and only if it is a topologically mixing subshift of finite type. We show that various natural examples of $\mathbb {Z}^d$ subshifts of finite type satisfy the map extension property, and hence our embedding theorem applies for them. These include any subshift of finite type with a safe symbol and the k-colorings of $\mathbb {Z}^d$ with $k \ge 2d+1$. We also establish a new theorem regarding lower entropy factors of multidimensional subshifts that extends Boyle’s lower entropy factor theorem from the one-dimensional case.