arXiv subjects

Giovanni Panti

Publications and source records attributed to Giovanni Panti.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

There is only one Farey map

Let A_0, A_1 be nonnegative matrices in GL(n+1,Z) such that the subsimplexes A_0[Delta], A_1[Delta] split the standard unit n-dimensional simplex Delta in two. We prove that, for every n=1,2,... and up to the natural action of the symmetric group by conjugation, there are precisely three choices for the pair (A_0, A_1) such that the resulting projective Iterated Function System is topologically contractive. In equivalent terms, in every dimension there exist precisely three continued fraction algorithms that assign distinct two-symbol expansions to distinct points. These expansions are induced by the Gauss-type map G: Delta --> Delta with branches A_0^{-1}, A_1^{-1}, which is continuous in exactly one of these three cases, namely when it equals the Farey-Monkemeyer map.

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arXiv2024

Purely periodic continued fractions and graph-directed iterated function systems

We describe Gauss-type maps as geometric realizations of certain codes in the monoid of nonnegative matrices in the extended modular group. Each such code, together with an appropriate choice of unimodular intervals in P^1R, determines a dual pair of graph-directed iterated function systems, whose attractors contain intervals and constitute the domains of a dual pair of Gauss-type maps. Our framework covers many continued fraction algorithms (such as Farey fractions, Ceiling, Even and Odd, Nearest Integer, ...) and provides explicit dual algorithms and characterizations of those quadratic irrationals having a purely periodic expansion.

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arXiv2022

Attractors of dual continued fractions

Given a Farey-type map F with full branches in the extended Hecke group Gamma_m, its dual F_# results from constructing the natural extension of F, letting time go backwards, and projecting. Although numerical simulations may suggest otherwise, we show that the domain of F_# is always tame, that is, it always contains intervals. As a main technical tool we construct, for every m=3,4,5,..., a homeomorphism M_m that simultaneously linearizes all maps with branches in Gamma_m, and show that the resulting dual linearized iterated function system satisfies the strong open set condition. We explicitly compute the Holder exponent of every M_m, generalizing Salem's results for the Minkowski question mark function M_3.

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arXiv2021

The finiteness conjecture holds in SL(2,Z>=0)^2

Let A,B be matrices in SL(2,R) having trace greater than or equal to 2. Assume the pair A,B is coherently oriented, that is, can be conjugated to a pair having nonnegative entries. Assume also that either A,B^(-1) is coherently oriented as well, or A,B have integer entries. Then the Lagarias-Wang finiteness conjecture holds for the set {A,B}, with optimal product in {A,B,AB,A^2B,AB^2}. In particular, it holds for every matrix pair in SL(2,Z>=0).

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arXiv2020

Billiards on pythagorean triples and their Minkowski functions

It has long been known that the set of primitive pythagorean triples can be enumerated by descending certain ternary trees. We unify these treatments by considering hyperbolic billiard tables in the Poincare disk model. Our tables have m>=3 ideal vertices, and are subject to the restriction that reflections in the table walls are induced by matrices in the triangle group PSU^\pm_{1,1}\Zbb[i]. The resulting billiard map \tilde B acts on the de Sitter space x_1^2+x_2^2-x_3^2=1, and has a natural factor B on the unit circle, the pythagorean triples appearing as the B-preimages of fixed points. We compute the invariant densities of these maps, and prove the Lagrange and Galois theorems: A complex number of unit modulus has a preperiodic (purely periodic) B-orbit precisely when it is quadratic (and isolated from its conjugate by a billiard wall) over Q(i). Each B as above is a (m-1)-to-1 orientation-reversing covering map of the circle, a property shared by the group character T(z)=z^{-(m-1)}. We prove that there exists a homeomorphism Phi, unique up to postcomposition with elements in a dihedral group, that conjugates B with T; in particular Phi -- whose prototype is the classical Minkowski question mark function -- establishes a bijection between the set of points of degree <=2 over Q(i) and the torsion subgroup of the circle. We provide an explicit formula for Phi, and prove that Phi is singular and Holder continuous with exponent log(m-1) divided by the maximal periodic mean free path in the associated billiard table.

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arXiv2018

Decreasing height along continued fractions

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-->{1/x} 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 noncocompact 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 noncocompact 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 nonnegative 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.

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arXiv2017

Slow continued fractions, transducers, and the Serret theorem

A basic result in the elementary theory of continued fractions says that two real numbers share the same tail in their continued fraction expansions iff they belong to the same orbit under the projective action of PGL(2,Z). This result was first formulated in Serret's Cours d'algèbre supérieure, so we'll refer to it as to the Serret theorem. Notwithstanding the abundance of continued fraction algorithms in the literature, a uniform treatment of the Serret result seems missing. In this paper we show that there are finitely many possibilities for the subgroups Sigma of PGL(2,Z) generated by the branches of the Gauss maps in a large family of algorithms, and that each Sigma-equivalence class of reals is partitioned in finitely many tail-equivalence classes, whose number we bound. Our approach is through the finite-state transducers that relate Gauss maps to each other. They constitute opfibrations of the Schreier graphs of the groups, and their synchronizability ---which may or may not hold--- assures the a.e. validity of the Serret theorem.

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arXiv2015

The weighted Farey sequence and a sliding section for the horocycle flow

The Farey sequence is the sequence of all rational numbers in the real unit interval, stratified by increasing denominators. A classical result by Hall says that its normalized gap distribution is the same as the distribution of the random variable 1/(2 zeta(2) xy) on a certain unit triangle. In this paper we weight the denominators by an arbitrary piecewise-smooth continuous function, and we characterize the resulting gap distribution as that of a multiple of the above variable, defined on a certain unit pentagon. Our characterization refines previous results by Boca, Cobeli and Zaharescu, but employs completely different techniques. Building upon recent work by Athreya and Cheung, we construct a varying-with-time Poincaré section for the horocycle flow on the space of unimodular lattices, and we interpret the weighted Farey sequence as the list of return times to the section. Under an appropriate parametrization, our pentagon appears as the orbit of Hall's triangle under the motion of the section, and basic equidistribution results for long closed horocycles yield explicit formulas for the limit transverse measure.

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arXiv2013

Measures induced by units

The half-open real unit interval (0,1] is closed under the ordinary multiplication and its residuum. The corresponding infinite-valued propositional logic has as its equivalent algebraic semantics the equational class of cancellative hoops. Fixing a strong unit in a cancellative hoop -equivalently, in the enveloping lattice-ordered abelian group- amounts to fixing a gauge scale for falsity. In this paper we show that any strong unit in a finitely presented cancellative hoop H induces naturally (i.e., in a representation-independent way) an automorphism-invariant positive normalized linear functional on H. Since H is representable as a uniformly dense set of continuous functions on its maximal spectrum, such functionals -in this context usually called states- amount to automorphism-invariant finite Borel measures on the spectrum. Different choices for the unit may be algebraically unrelated (e.g., they may lie in different orbits under the automorphism group of H), but our second main result shows that the corresponding measures are always absolutely continuous w.r.t. each other, and provides an explicit expression for the reciprocal density.

math.LO↗

arXiv2011

Denominator-preserving maps

Let F be a continuous injective map from an open subset of R^n to R^n. Assume that, for infinitely many k>1, F induces a bijection between the rational points of denominator k in the domain and those in the image (the denominator of (a_1/b_1,...,a_n/b_n) being the l.c.m. of b_1,...,b_n). Then F preserves the Lebesgue measure.

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arXiv2010

Kakutani-von Neumann maps on simplexes

A Kakutani-von Neumann map is the push-forward of the group rotation (Z_2,+1) to a unit simplex via an appropriate topological quotient. The usual quotient towards the unit interval is given by the base 2 expansion of real numbers, which in turn is induced by the doubling map. In this paper we replace the doubling map with an n-dimensional generalization of the tent map; this allows us to define Kakutani-von Neumann transformations in simplexes of arbitrary dimensions. The resulting maps are piecewise-linear bijections (not just mod 0 bijections), whose orbits are all uniformly distributed; in particular, they are uniquely ergodic w.r.t. the Lebesgue measure. The forward orbit of a certain vertex provides an enumeration of all points in the simplex having dyadic coordinates, and this enumeration can be translated via the n-dimensional Minkowski function to an enumeration of all rational points. In the course of establishing the above results, we introduce a family of {+1,-1}-valued functions, constituting an n-dimensional analogue of the classical Walsh functions.

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arXiv2007

A general Lagrange Theorem

The ordinary continued fractions expansion of a real number is based on the Euclidean division. Variants of the latter yield variants of the former, all encompassed by a more general Dynamical Systems framework. For all these variants the Lagrange Theorem holds: a number has an eventually periodic expansion if and only if it is a quadratic irrational. This fact is surely known for specific expansions, but the only proof for the general case that I could trace in the literature follows as an implicit corollary from much deeper results by Boshernitzan and Carroll on interval exchange transformations. It may then be useful to have at hand a simple and virtually computation-free proof of a general Lagrange Theorem.

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arXiv2007

Multidimensional continued fractions and a Minkowski function

The Minkowski Question Mark function can be characterized as the unique homeomorphism of the real unit interval that conjugates the Farey map with the tent map. We construct an n-dimensional analogue of the Minkowski function as the only homeomorphism of an n-simplex that conjugates the piecewise-fractional map associated to the Monkemeyer continued fraction algorithm with an appropriate tent map.

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arXiv2007

The automorphism group of falsum-free product logic

A few things are known, and many are unknown, on the automorphism group of the free MV-algebra over n-1 generators. In this paper we show that this group appears as the stabilizer of 1 in the larger group of all automorphisms of the free cancellative hoop over n generators. Both groups have a dual action on the same space, namely the (n-1)-dimensional cube. The larger group has a richer dynamics, at the expense of loosing the two key features of the McNaughton homeomorphisms: preservation of denominators of rational points, and preservation of the Lebesgue measure. We present here some basic results, some examples, and some problems.

math.LO↗

arXiv2007

Invariant measures in free MV-algebras

MV-algebras can be viewed either as the Lindenbaum algebras of Lukasiewicz infinite-valued logic, or as unit intervals of lattice-ordered abelian groups in which a strong order unit has been fixed. The free n-generated MV-algebra Free_n is representable as an algebra of continuous piecewise-linear functions with integer coefficients over the unit cube [0,1]^n. The maximal spectrum of Free_n is canonically homeomorphic to [0,1]^n, and the automorphisms of the algebra are in 1-1 correspondence with the pwl homeomorphisms with integer coefficients of the unit cube. In this paper we prove that the only probability measure on [0,1]^n which is null on underdimensioned 0-sets and is invariant under the group of all such homeomorphisms is the Lebesgue measure. From the viewpoint of lattice-ordered abelian groups, this fact means that, in relevant cases, fixing an automorphism-invariant strong unit implies fixing a distinguished probability measure on the maximal spectrum. From the viewpoint of algebraic logic, it means that the only automorphism-invariant truth averaging process that detects pseudotrue propositions is the integral with respect to Lebesgue measure.

math.LO↗

arXiv2006

Bernoulli automorphisms of finitely generated free MV-algebras

MV-algebras can be viewed either as the Lindenbaum algebras of Lukasiewicz infinite-valued logic, or as unit intervals [0,u] of lattice-ordered abelian groups in which a strong order unit u>0 has been fixed. They form an equational class, and the free n-generated free MV-algebra is representable as an algebra of piecewise-linear continuous functions with integer coefficients over the unit n-dimensional cube. In this paper we show that the automorphism group of such a free algebra contains elements having strongly chaotic behaviour, is the sense that their duals are measure-theoretically isomorphic to a Bernoulli shift. This fact is noteworthy from the viewpoint of algebraic logic, since it gives a distinguished status to Lebesgue measure as an averaging measure on the space of valuations. As an ergodic theory fact, it provides explicit examples of volume-preserving homeomorphisms of the unit cube which are piecewise-linear with integer coefficients, preserve the denominators of rational points, and enjoy the Bernoulli property.

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arXiv2004

Dynamical properties of logical substitutions

This is an expository paper on the dynamical properties of substitutions in propositional many-valued logics. We identify substitutions with endomorphisms of free algebras, and we study their actions on the dual spectral spaces.

math.LO↗

arXiv2004

Generic substitutions

Up to equivalence, a substitution in propositional logic is an endomorphism of its free algebra. On the dual space, this results in a continuous function, and whenever the space carries a natural measure one may ask about the stochastic properties of the action. In classical logic there is a strong dichotomy: while over finitely many propositional variables everything is trivial, the study of the continuous transformations of the Cantor space is the subject of an extensive literature, and is far from being a completed task. In many-valued logic this dichotomy disappears: already in the finite-variable case many interesting phenomena occur, and the present paper aims at displaying some of these.

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