Reversibility in groups of piecewise linear homeomorphisms of the circle (Q2272659)

The authors solve partially one of the problems appearing in the book [\textit{A. G. O'Farrell} and \textit{I. Short}, Reversibility in dynamics and group theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2015; Zbl 1331.37003)], namely, to investigate the reversibility property in the group of piecewise-affine homeomorphisms of the circle. Recall that for a given group \(G\), an element \(g\in G\) is said to be reversible in \(G\) if there exists \(h\in G\) such that \(g^{-1}=hgh^{-1},\) that is, \(g\) is conjugate to its inverse in \(G\). If, additionally, the conjugating element can be chosen to be an involution (i.e, \(h^{-1}=h\)), we say that \(g\) is strongly invariant. In the paper, the concerned group \(G\) is the group \(\mathrm{PL}(S)\) of homeomorphisms \(f\) of the circle \(S\) which are piecewise linear, that is, they are locally affine at all but at finite number of points (called break points). Denote by \(\mathrm{PL}^+(S)\) (\(\mathrm{PL}^-(S)\), respectively) the group of orientation-preserving (resp., reversing) elements of \(\mathrm{PL}(S)\). The first two main results of the paper are the following: the authors establish necessary conditions for reversibility of elements \(f\in\mathrm{PL}^+(S)\) in \(\mathrm{PL}^+(S)\) (Theorem 1.2); in Theorem 1.3, they characterize the reversibility of a map \(f\in\mathrm{PL}^+(S)\) by an element of \(\mathrm{PL}^-(S)\), and the reversibility of \(f\in\mathrm{PL}^-(S)\) in \(\mathrm{PL}(S)\). Moreover, when the authors restrict to a special class, \(\mathrm{PL}_D^+(S)\), of \(\mathrm{PL}^+(S)\) whose elements satisfy the \((D)\)-property (the product of the \(f\)-jumps in the break points on each orbit is one), then they are able to characterize the reversibility of elements \(f\) of \(\mathrm{PL}_D^+(S)\) in \(\mathrm{PL}^+(S)\) (in this situation \(f\) must be an involution, see Theorem 1.4); and also the reversibility of elements of \(\mathrm{PL}_D^+(S)\) in \(\mathrm{PL}(S)\) by an element of \(\mathrm{PL}^-(S)\) (Theorem 1.5-(i)); finally, in Theorem 1.5-(ii), the authors characterize the reversibility of \(f\in\mathrm{PL}_D^-(S)\) in \(\mathrm{PL}(S)\).