Badly ordered cycles of circle maps (Q1127806)

The present paper deals with the class \(\mathcal L\) of all liftings of continuous maps of the circle into itself of degree one, that is, continuous maps \(F:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) for which \(F(x+1)=F(x)+1\) for any \(x\in \mathbb{R}\). Extending previous results by \textit{P. L. Boyland} and \textit{G. R. Hall} [Topology 26, 21-35 (1987; Zbl 0618.58032)], \textit{P. L. Boyland} [Comment. Math. Helv. 67, No. 2, 203-213 (1992; Zbl 0763.58012)] and the authors [Combinatorial dynamics and entropy in dimension one, Adv. Ser. Nonlinear Dyn. 5 (1993; Zbl 0843.58034)], its aim is to show how badly ordered cycles can be used to obtain information about the rotation intervals of these maps and hence of their dynamics. In order to state the results properly some necessary definitions must be recalled. A point \(X\in \mathbb{R}\) is said to be periodic (mod 1) of period \(s\) for a map \(F\in \mathcal L\) if \(F^s(X)-X\in \mathbb{Z}\) but \(F^i(X)-X\not\in \mathbb{Z}\) for any \(i=1,\ldots, s-1\). The set \(\{F^n(X)+m:n\geq 0\), \(m\in \mathbb{Z}\}\) is then called a cycle (mod 1) of period \(s\). If \(P\) is a cycle (mod 1) of a map \(F\in \mathcal L\) then \(P\) is said to be twist if \(F|_p\) is increasing. If \(P=\{X_i\}_{i\in \mathbb{Z}}\) and \(Q=\{Y_j\}_{j\in \mathbb{Z}}\) are cycles (mod 1) of maps \(F\) and \(G\) from \(\mathcal L\) with periods \(p\) and \(q\) (with \(X_i<X_j\) and \(Y_i<Y_j\) if \(i<j\)) then \(P\) is said to have a block structure over \(Q\) if \(p=nq\) for some integer \(n\) and there is an integer \(k\) such that \(P=\bigcup_{i\in \mathbb{Z}} P_i\), where \(P_i=\{X_{k+in}, X_{k+in+1},\ldots, X_{k+(i+1)n-1}\}\) for any \(i\) and \(F(P_i)=P_j\) if and only if \(G(Y_i)=Y_j\). A cycle (mod 1) is called badly ordered if it has no block structure over a twist cycle. If \(F\in \mathcal L\) and \(X\in \mathbb{R}\) then its rotation number is defined by \(\limsup_{n\rightarrow \infty} \frac{F^n(X)-X}{n}\). The set of all rotation numbers for \(F\) is called its rotation interval since, as is well known, it is a compact interval (possibly degenerated to a single point). If \(r\in \mathbb{Z}\) and \(s\in \mathbb{N}\) are coprime and \(s>1\) then there are unique numbers \(r_1,r_2\in \mathbb{Z}\) and \(s_1,s_2\in \mathbb{N}\) such that \(r=r_1+r_2\), \(s=s_1+s_2\) and \(rs_1-r_1s=r_2s-rs_2=1\). The maps \(\alpha_{r/s}:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow [r_1/s_1,r/s)\) and \(\beta_{r/s}:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow (r/s,r_2/s_2]\) are then defined by \(\alpha_{r/s}(t)=\frac{r_1+tr}{s_1+ts}\) and \(\beta_{r/s}(t)=\frac{r_2+tr}{s_2+ts}\). The main results of the paper are Theorems A, B and C below. Theorem A. Let \(r\in \mathbb{Z}\), \(s,n\in \mathbb{N}\) be such that \(r\) and \(s\) are coprime. Assume that \(F\in \mathcal L\) has a badly ordered cycle (mod 1) of period \(ns\) and rotation number \(r/s\). Then the rotation interval of \(F\) contains an interval of the form \([\alpha_{r/s}(m), \beta_{r/s}(k)]\) for some non-negative integers \(m,k\) with \(m+k=n-1\) if \(s>1\) and of the form \([r-\frac{1}{m}, r+\frac{1}{k}]\) for some positive integers \(m,k\) with \(m+k=n\) if \(s=1\). Theorem B. Given \(s,n\in \mathbb{N}\) and \(r\in \mathbb{R}\) with \(r\) and \(s\) coprime, and either non-negative numbers \(m,k\) with \(m+k=n-1\) if \(s>1\), or positive integers \(m,k\) with \(m+k=n\) if \(s=1\), there exists a map \(F\in \mathcal L\) having a badly ordered cycle (mod 1) \(P\) of period \(ns\) and rotation number \(r/s\), such that the rotation interval of \(F\) is either \([\alpha_{r/s}(m), \beta_{r/s}(k)]\) if \(s>1\) or \([r-\frac{1}{m}, r+\frac{1}{k}]\) if \(s=1\). Theorem C. Let \(r\in \mathbb{Z}\), \(s,n\in \mathbb{N}\) be such that \(r\) and \(s\) are coprime. Assume that the rotation interval of a map \(F\in \mathcal L\) contains in its interior an interval of the form \([\alpha_{r/s}(m), \beta_{r/s}(k)]\) for some non-negative integers \(m,k\) with \(m+k=n-1\) if \(s>1\) and of the form \([r-\frac{1}{m}, r+\frac{1}{k}]\) for some positive integers \(m,k\) with \(m+k=n\) if \(s=1\). Then \(F\) has a badly ordered cycle mod 1 of period \(ns\) and rotation number \(r/s\). As a corollary, the endpoints of the rotation interval of a map from \(\mathcal L\) are characterized in terms if the behaviour of the corresponding cycles. Also, it is shown that although Theorem C is not the exact converse of Theorem A this cannot be solved.