Parrondo's dynamic paradox for the stability of non-hyperbolic fixed points (Q1678227)

The main purpose of this paper is to show that for periodic nonautonomous discrete dynamical systems, even if a common fixed point for each of the autonomous associated dynamical systems is a repeller, this fixed point can become a local attractor for the whole system, giving rise to a Parrondo's dynamical-type paradox. Let \(U\subset \mathbb{R}^{n}\) be an open set. Consider in \(U\) a \(k\)-periodic system, \[ x_{n+1} = f_{n+1}(x_{n}) , \] with initial condition \(x_{0}\), and a sequence of maps \(\left(f_{m}\right)_{m\in \mathbb{N}}\) such that \[ f_{m}=f_{l} \quad \text{if} \quad m\equiv l \quad \mod k . \] The set \(\left\{f_{1}, \ldots, f_{k} \right\}\) will be called periodic set. The authors study the stability of fixed points of \(k\)-periodic systems which are common fixed points of all the maps in the periodic set. The main reason for doing this is that it is the simplest type of periodic orbit that a periodic dynamical system can have. The so-called Parrondo's paradox is a paradox in game theory, which essentially says that a combination of losing strategies becomes a winning strategy. In the paper it is proved that in the non-hyperbolic case the periodicity can destroy the repeller character of the common fixed points, giving rise to attracting points for the complete nonautonomous system, showing the existence of a kind of Parrondo's dynamical-type paradox for periodic discrete dynamical systems. The paper starts with the study of the one-dimensional case. The tools for determining the stability of non-hyperbolic fixed points for one-dimensional analytical maps are well established. As it turns out, one of the key points is the computation of the so-called stability constants for studying the stability of non-hyperbolic fixed points of one-dimensional non-orientable analytic maps. Using these tools, in the periodic case, the following result can be proved, which implies that, contrary to what happens in even dimensions, it is impossible to find two one-dimensional maps sharing a fixed point which is repeller, and such that the composition map has a locally asymptotically stable fixed point. However, it is possible to find a locally asymptotically stable fixed point when three or more maps sharing a repeller fixed point are composed (that is for \(k\)-periodic systems with \(k\geq 3\)) giving rise to the Parrondo's dynamic paradox. Theorem A.: The following statements hold: (a) Consider two analytic maps \(f_{i}: U\to U\), \(i = 1, 2\), having a common fixed point \(p\in U\) which is locally asymptotically stable (resp., repeller). Then, the point \(p\) is either locally asymptotically stable (resp., repeller) or semi-asymptotically stable for the composition map \(f_{2,1}\) and both possibilities may happen. (b) There are \(k\geq 3\) polynomial maps \(f_{i}: U\to U\), \(i=1, \ldots, k\), sharing a common fixed point \(p\in U\) which is locally asymptotically stable (resp., repeller) for all them and such that \(p\) is a repeller (resp., a locally asymptotically stable) fixed point for the composition map \(f_{k,k-1,\ldots,1} \). The second result is about the planar case which reads as follows: Theorem B.: There exist polynomial maps \(f_{1}\) and \(f_{2}\) in \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\) sharing a common fixed point \(p\) which is a locally asymptotically stable (resp., a repeller) fixed point for both of them, and such that \(p\) is repeller (resp., locally asymptotically stable) for the composition map \(f_{2,1}\).