Strong distributional chaos and minimal sets (Q1019144)

Let \(\varphi\) be a continuous map of a compact metric space \((Y,\rho)\) into itself, \(D_{Y}=(0,\text{diam}(Y)],\) and \(I=[0,1]\). Given \(x,y\in Y\) and a positive integer \(n,\) a distribution function \(\Phi_{xy}^{(n)}:D_{Y}\rightarrow I\) is defined by \[ \Phi_{xy}^{(n)}(t)=\frac{1}{n}\#\left\{ 0\leq i<n;\;\rho(\varphi^{i}(x),\varphi^{i}(y))<t\right\} , \] whereas the lower and upper distribution functions \(\Phi_{xy}\) and \(\Phi _{xy}^{\ast}\) generated by \(\varphi\) are defined, respectively, by \[ \Phi_{xy}(t)=\liminf_{n\rightarrow\infty}\Phi_{xy}^{(n)}(t)\qquad\text{and\qquad}\Phi_{xy}^{\ast}(t)=\limsup_{n\rightarrow\infty}\Phi_{xy}^{(n)}(t). \] If there exist \(x,y\in Y\) such that \(\Phi_{xy}^{\ast}\equiv1\) and \(\Phi _{xy}(t)=0\) for some \(t,\) it is said that \(\varphi\) exhibits distributional chaos of type 1 (DC1) [\textit{B. Schweizer} and \textit{J. Smítal}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 344, 737--754 (1994; Zbl 0812.58062)]. The main result in the paper is Theorem 1 which states that there exists a DC1 homeomorphism \(F\in\mathcal{T}\) possessing a pair of points \(u,v\) with \(\Phi_{uv}\equiv0,\) \(\Phi_{uv}^{\ast}\equiv1,\) and such that any \(\omega \)-limit set of \(F\) contains a unique minimal set. Recall that the class \(\mathcal{T}\) of triangular maps of the square is the class of continuous maps \(F:I^{2}\rightarrow I^{2}\) of the form \(F(x,y)=(f(x),g_{x}(y)),\) for any \((x,y)\in I^{2}.\) Theorem 1 contributes to the problem regarding classification of triangular maps posed by Professor Sharkovsky in eighties providing another example of a DC1 system with zero topological entropy. The paper concludes with a list of five open problems regarding relationship between DC1 systems and minimality.