Canonical representatives for patterns of tree maps (Q1356382)

The theory of patters for interval maps has been extensively developed, a standard reference being \textit{M. Misiurewicz} and \textit{Z. Nitecki}'s memoir [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 456 (1991; Zbl 0745.58019)]. The paper under review undertakes a similar program for tree maps. In this setting the authors introduce the notion of pattern as follows. Let \(T\) be a tree and let \(A\) be a finite subset of \(T\). We call the pair \((T,A)\) a pointed tree, and we say that two points from \(A\) are consecutive if the subinterval of \(T\) having them as its endpoints do no intersect other points from \(A\). We say that two pointed trees \((T,A)\) and \((T',A')\) are equivalent if there is a bijection \(\phi:A\rightarrow A'\) such that \(x,y\in A\) are consecutive if and only if \(\phi(x),\phi(y)\) are. The equivalence class containing \((T,A)\) will be denoted by \([T,A]\). Let \((T,A)\) and \((T',A')\) be equivalent pointed trees and let \(\theta:A\rightarrow A\) and \(\theta':A'\rightarrow A'\) be maps. We say that \(\theta\) and \(\theta'\) are equivalent if there is a bijective map \(\phi:A\rightarrow A'\) preserving consecutive points such that \(\theta'=\phi\theta\phi^{-1}\). The equivalence class containing \(\theta\) will be denoted by \([\theta]\). If \(\mathcal T=[T,A]\) and \(\Theta=[\theta]\) then the pair \((\mathcal T,\Theta)\) will be called a pattern. If \(f:T\rightarrow T\) is a continuous map, we say that \(f\) exhibits the pattern \((\mathcal T,\Theta)\) if there exists a finite set \(A\subset T\) with \(f(A)\subset A\) such that \(\mathcal T=[T,A]\) and \(\Theta=[f|_A]\). The (topological) entropy of a pattern \(h(\mathcal T,\Theta)\) is defined as the infimum of the entropies \(h(f)\) of all maps \(f\) exhibiting this pattern. The main result of the paper is the following: given a pattern \((\mathcal T,\Theta)\), there exist a tree \(T\), a finite set \(A\subset T\) and an \(A\)-mononote map \(f:T\rightarrow T\) (that is, a continuous map which is monotone on each interval connecting two consecutive points from \(A\)) such that \((\mathcal T,\Theta)=([T,A],[f|_A])\). Moreover, \(h(g)=h(\mathcal T,\Theta)\) for any \(A\)-monotone map \(g\) exhibiting the pattern \((\mathcal T,\Theta)\) and \(h(\mathcal T,\Theta)\) can be computed from a pattern invariant, the so-called path transition matrix \(M_p(\mathcal T,\Theta)\): namely, \(h(\mathcal T,\Theta)=\log \max\{\rho(M_p(\mathcal T,\Theta)),1\}\) where \(\rho(M)\) denotes the spectral radius of a matrix \(M\). It is also shown that the class of \(A\)-mononote maps exhibiting a given pattern admits an essentially unique canonical representative whose dynamics are minimal; in fact, dynamics of all \(A\)-monotone maps turn out to be minimal up to some extent. Finally, entropy zero patterns are characterized in an analogous way to that of interval patterns.