On the relaxation time of Gauss' continued-fraction map. II: The Banach space approach (Transfer operator method) (Q1111603)

The spectrum of the transfer operator L for the map \(Tx=1/x-[1/x]\) when restricted to a certain Banach space of holomorphic functions is shown to coincide with the spectrum of the adjoint \(U^*\) of Koopman's isometric operator \(Uf(x)=f(T(x))\) when the former is restricted to the Hilbert space \(L_ 2(I,d\mu)\) introduced in part I of this work (see the review above). If N denotes the operator \(L-P_ 1\) with \(P_ 1\) the projector onto the eigenfunction to the dominant eigenvalue \(\lambda_ 1=1\) of L, then -N is a \(\mu_ 0\)-positive operator with respect to some cone and therefore has a dominant positive, simple eigenvalue \(-\lambda_ 2\). A minimax principle holds giving rigorous upper and lower bounds both for \(\lambda_ 2\) and the relaxation time of the map T.