Renormalizations and rigidity theory for circle homeomorphisms with singularities of the break type (Q1396567)

Consider the set of circle automorphisms with a rotation number which is algebraic of degree 2. The cases when such maps are diffeomorphisms or when they have just one point where the derivative vanishes have been studied intensively. The paper under review deals with a less notorious case when the transformations are smooth with non-zero derivative except for one point where the one-sided derivatives are not equal (a ``break singularity''). The authors develop a complete theory of renormalization operator on the space of such mappings, including its uniform hyperbolicity and the structure of domains of constant rotation number. Unlike in the case of analytic singularities, proofs are direct and do not make use of exotic functional spaces.