Coexistence of uniquely ergodic subsystems of interval mappings (Q1314413)

The author considers uniquely ergodic subsystems of interval mappings and associates functions with them which are invariants up to topological conjugacy. An appropriate Sharkovskij-like ordering on these functions enables him to establish a coexistence of uniquely ergodic subsystems. Let \({\mathcal Z}\) be the set of functions \(s:\mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}\) satisfying \(s(k) | k\) for every \(k \in\mathbb{N}\) and for every \(\ell,k \in\mathbb{N}\) if \(\ell | k\) then \(s(\ell) = (\ell,s(k))\). Let \(E \subset {\mathcal Z}\) be the elements such that \(s(k)=(n,k)\) for some \(n \in \mathbb{N}\) and all \(k \in \mathbb{N}\). Identify \(E\) with \(\mathbb{N}\) in the obvious way and define \({\mathcal Y} = {\mathcal Z} \cup \mathbb{N}'\) where \(\mathbb{N}'\) is a copy of \(\mathbb{N}\). Let \(X\) be a compact metric space, \(T \in C(X,X)\) and \((X,T,\mu)\) a uniquely ergodic system. A \(D\)-function \(T_ \mu\) of \((X,T,\mu)\) is defined by: \(T_ \mu (k) = n \in\mathbb{N}\) if supp\((\mu)\) is a periodic orbit of \(T\) with period \(n\); \(T_ \mu (k)=n' \in\mathbb{N}'\) if supp\((\mu)\) is not a periodic orbit but the number of ergodic components of \(T^ k\) is \((n,k)\) for all \(k \in\mathbb{N}\); \(T_ \mu (k)\) is the number of ergodic components of \(T^ k\) for each \(k\) and it is not a bounded function. The author shows that \(D\)-functions are appropriate invariants of such uniquely ergodic systems. Furthermore under an appropriate partial ordering on \({\mathcal Y}\) if \(f:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) has a uniquely ergodic subsystem \((X,f |_ X, \alpha)\) then \(f\) has uniquely ergodic subsystems for all \(D\)-functions which follow \(f_ \alpha\) in the partial order. The paper contains a variety of other interesting relationships between these concepts.