Slope problem for trajectories of holomorphic semigroups in the unit disk (Q2339695)

A one-parameter semigroup of holomorphic functions in the unit disk \(\mathbb D=\{z:|z|<1\}\) is a continuous homomorphism \(t\to\varphi_t\) between the semigroup of non-negative real numbers endowed with the Euclidean topology and the semigroup \(\text{Hol}(\mathbb D,\mathbb D)\) of all holomorphic self-maps of \(\mathbb D\) endowed with the topology of uniform convergence on compacta. A point \(\xi\) in the Riemann sphere \(\mathbb C_{\infty}\) is called an \(\omega\)-limit point of a curve \(\Gamma:(s_1,s_2)\to\mathbb C\), \(-\infty<s_1<s_2\leq+\infty\), if there exists a strictly increasing sequence \((t_n)\subset(s_1,s_2)\) convergent to \(s_2\) such that \(\Gamma(t_n)\to\xi\). The set of all \(\omega\)-limit points of \(\Gamma\) is called the \(\omega\)-limit set and denoted by \(\omega(\Gamma)\). The continuous version of the Denjoy-Wolff theorem states that, for any one-parameter semigroup \((\varphi_t)\subset\text{Hol}(\mathbb D,\mathbb D)\) such that \(\varphi_{t_0}\) has no fixed point in \(\mathbb D\) for some \(t_0>0\), there exists a unique point \(\tau\in\partial\mathbb D\), called the Denjoy-Wolff point of \((\varphi_t)\), such that \[ \lim_{t\to+\infty}\varphi_t(z)=\tau\;\;\text{for every}\;z\in\mathbb D. \] Moreover, \(\lim_{r\to1-}\varphi'_t(r\tau)=e^{-\lambda t}\) for some \(\lambda\geq0\) and all \(t\geq0\). The semigroup \((\varphi_t)\) is said to be hyperbolic if \(\lambda>0\), and parabolic if \(\lambda=0\). Given \(z\in\mathbb D\), define the set of slopes \(\text{Slope}^+(\varphi_t(z),\tau)\) of a semigroup \((\varphi_t)\) with associated Denjoy-Wolff point \(\tau\in\partial\mathbb D\) as the \(\omega\)-limit of the curve \[ [0,\infty)\ni t\to\text{Arg}(1-\overline{\tau}\varphi_t(z))\in\left(-\frac{\pi}{2},\frac{\pi}{2}\right), \] where \(\text{Arg}\) denotes the principal argument. If the semigroup \((\varphi_t)\) is parabolic, the open ``Parabolic Slope Conjecture'' says that there exists \(\theta\in[-\frac{\pi}{2},\frac{\pi}{2}]\) such that \(\text{Slope}^+(\varphi_t(z),\tau)=\{\theta\}\) for all \(z\in\mathbb D\). With a minor assumption of regularity, the Parabolic Slope Conjecture is true. However, the authors prove that the conjecture is false in general. Theorem 1.1. There exists a parabolic semigroup \((\varphi_t)\) in \(\mathbb D\) with the Denjoy-Wolff point \(\tau=1\) such that \[ \text{Slope}^+(\varphi_t(z),1)=\left[-\frac{\pi}{2},\frac{\pi}{2}\right]\;\text{for each}\;z\in\mathbb D. \] In particular, the Parabolic Slope Conjecture is false.