arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jon Chaika.
We show that a residual set of non-degenerate IETs on more than 3 letters is topologically mixing. This shows that there exists a uniquely ergodic topologically mixing IET. This is then applied to show that some billiard flows in a fixed direction in an L-shaped polygon are topologically mixing.
We show that for almost every (with respect to Masur-Veech measure) $ω\in \mathcal{H}(2)$, the set of angles $θ\in [0, 2π)$ so that $e^{iθ}ω$ has non-uniquely ergodic vertical foliation has Hausdorff dimension (and codimension) $1/2$.
We consider the limit set in Thurston's compactification PMF of Teichmueller space of some Teichmueller geodesics defined by quadratic differentials with minimal but not uniquely ergodic vertical foliations. We show that a) there are quadratic differentials so that the limit set of the geodesic is a unique point, b) there are quadratic differentials so that the limit set is a line segment, c) there are quadratic differentials so that the vertical foliation is ergodic and there is a line segment as limit set, and d) there are quadratic differentials so that the vertical foliation is ergodic and there is a unique point as its limit set. These give examples of divergent Teichmueller geodesics whose limit sets overlap and Teichmueller geodesics that stay a bounded distance apart but whose limit sets are not equal. A byproduct of our methods is a construction of a Teichmueller geodesic and a simple closed curve $γ$ so that the hyperbolic length of the geodesic in the homotopy class of gamma varies between increasing and decreasing on an unbounded sequence of time intervals along the geodesic.
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 $ω(n) 1/2$, 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 interval exchange transformations of periodic type.
A natural generalization of interval exchange maps are linear involutions, first introduced by Danthony and Nogueira. Recurrent train tracks with a single switch which we call non-classical interval exchanges, form a subclass of linear involutions without flips. They are analogs of classical interval exchanges, and are first return maps for non-orientable measured foliations associated to quadratic differentials on Riemann surfaces. We show that every transformation is disjoint from almost every irreducible non-classical interval exchange. In the appendix, we prove that for almost every pair of quadratic differentials with respect to the Masur-Veech measure, the vertical flows are disjoint. In the appendix, we prove that for almost every pair of quadratic differentials with respect to the Masur-Veech measure, the vertical flows are disjoint.
We give an explicit formula for the limiting gap distribution of slopes of saddle connections on the golden L, or any translation surface in its SL(2, R)-orbit, in particular the double pentagon. This is the first explicit computation of the distribution of gaps for a flat surface that is not a torus cover.
Let H stand for the set of homeomorphisms on [0,1]. We prove the following dichotomy for Borel subsets A of [0,1]: either there exists a homeomorphism f in H such that the image f(A) contains no 3-term arithmetic progressions; or, for every f in H, the image f(A) contains arithmetic progressions of arbitrary finite length. In fact, we show that the first alternative holds if and only if the set A is meager (a countable union of nowhere dense sets).
We show that every transformation is disjoint from almost every interval exchange transformation (IET), answering a question of Bufetov. In particular, we prove that almost every pair of IETs is disjoint. It follows that the product of almost every pair is uniquely ergodic. A key step in the proof is showing that any sequence of density 1 contains a rigidity sequence for almost every IET, strengthening a result of Veech.
We consider how quickly a typical point returns to neighborhoods of itself under the flow in a typical direction on a translation surface.
We construct some skew products over rotations with strange properties. We construct a non-uniquely ergodic Z_2 skew product over a bounded quotient rotation. We describe some of its properties and related Z skew products.
We show some results about the Hausdorff dimension of particular minimal but not uniquely ergodic interval exchange transformations. There is an appendix which shows that typical points for two different ergodic measures of an interval exchange can approximate each other differently.
Motivated by the study of billiards in polygons, we prove fine results for the distribution of gaps of directions of saddle connections on translation surfaces. As an application we prove that for almost every holomorphic differential $ω$ on a Riemann surface of genus $g \geq 2$ the smallest gap between saddle connection directions of length at most a fixed length decays faster than quadratically in the length. We also characterize the exceptional set: the decay rate is not faster than quadratic if and only if $ω$ is a lattice surface.
This paper proves shrinking target results for IETs. Let {a_1\geq a_2 \geq...} be a sequence of positive real numbers with divergent sum. Then for almost every IET T, the limsup of B(T^ix,a_i) has full Lebesgue measure (where B(z, e) is the open ball around z of radius e). Related results are established including the analogous result for geodesic flows on a translation surface.
This paper uses a construction of M. Keane to show that there exists a topologically mixing interval exchange transformation.
A sequence $\{x_{n}\}_1^\infty$ in $[0,1)$ is called Borel-Cantelli (BC) if for all non-increasing sequences of positive real numbers $\{a_n\}$ with $\underset{i=1}{\overset{\infty}{\sum}}a_i=\infty$ the set \[\underset{k=1}{\overset{\infty}{\cap}} \underset{n=k}{\overset{\infty}{\cup}} B(x_n, a_n))=\{x\in[0,1)\mid |x_n-x|<a_n \text{for} \infty \text{many}n\geq1\}\] has full Lebesgue measure. (To put it informally, BC sequences are sequences for which a natural converse to the Borel-Cantelli Theorem holds). The notion of BC sequences is motivated by the Monotone Shrinking Target Property for dynamical systems, but our approach is from a geometric rather than dynamical perspective. A sufficient condition, a necessary condition and a necessary and sufficient condition for a sequence to be BC are established. A number of examples of BC and not BC sequences are presented. The property of a sequence to be BC is a delicate diophantine property. For example, the orbits of a pseudo-Anosoff IET (interval exchange transformation) are BC while the orbits of a "generic" IET are not. The notion of BC sequences is extended to more general spaces.
We present shrinking targets results for general systems with the emphasis on applications for IETs (interval exchange transformations) $(J,T)$, $J=[0,1)$. In particular, we prove that if an IET $(J,T)$ is ergodic (relative to the Lebesgue measure $\lam$), then the equality \[ \liminf_{n\to\infty}\limits n |T^n(x)-y|=0 \tag{A1} \] holds for $\lam\ttimes\lam$-a. a. $(x,y)\in J^2$. The ergodicity assumption is essential: the result does not extend to all minimal IETs. The factor $n$ in (A1) is optimal (e. g., it cannot be replaced by $n \ln(\ln(\ln n))$. On the other hand, for Lebesgue almost all 3-IETs $(J,T)$ we prove that for all $\eps>0$ \[ \liminf_{n\to\infty}\limits n^\eps |T^n(x)-T^n(y)|= \infty,\quad \text{for Lebesgue a. a.} (x,y)\in J^2. \tag{A2} \] This should be contrasted with the equality $ \liminf_{n\to\infty}\limits |T^n(x)-T^n(y)|=0, $ for a. a. $(x,y)\in J^2$, which holds since $(J^2, T\times T)$ is ergodic (because generic 3-IETs $(J,T)$ are weakly mixing). We also prove that no 3-IET is strongly topologically mixing.
Given an irrational alpha and an x in the unit interval, the set of balanced times, for which the same number of (k*alpha+x) (modulo one) are less than or equal to one half as are larger than one half, is in general infinite, but sparse in terms of density. We investigate the sparseness of this sequence in terms of summation over reciprocals. Our results are that for the generic pair (alpha,x), the resulting sum diverges, but there are certain exceptional alpha for which the associated sums converge for every x.
We exhibit the densest sequence on the unit circle R/Z, x_k= log(2k-1)/log(2) (mod 1).