A temporal central limit theorem for real-valued cocycles over rotations (Q1633927)

Let $0<\alpha<1$ be a badly approximable irrational number and $0<\beta<1$ be badly approximable with respect to $\alpha$, which implies the existence of some positive constant $c$ such that $|q\alpha -p|\ge c$ and $|q\alpha -\beta -p|\ge c/|q|$ for any $p\in\mathbb{Z},\ q\in\mathbb{Z}^*$ such that $\mathrm{g.c.d.}(p,q)=1$. \par Denote by $R_\alpha$ the rotation by $\alpha$ on $\mathbb{T}= \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$, and for any $x\in \mathbb{T}$ let $f_\beta(x):= 1_{\{0\le x<\beta\}}-\beta$. \par The authors consider the Birkhoff sums $S_k(R_\alpha,f_\beta, x) := \sum_{j=0}^{k-1} f_\beta\circ R_\alpha^j(x)$, for $k\in\mathbb{N}^*$. \par The main result is the following temporal central limit theorem, generalizing a theorem by \textit{J. Beck} [Period. Math. Hung. 60, No. 2, 137--242 (2010; Zbl 1259.11092); Period. Math. Hung. 62, No. 2, 127--246 (2011; Zbl 1260.11060)]: for any $x\in \mathbb{T}$ there exist sequences $B_n(\alpha,\beta)$ (not depending on $x$) and $A_n(\alpha,\beta,x)$ such that for any $a<b$, as $n\to\infty$: \[ \frac{1}{n} \mathrm{Card}\left\{ k\in\{1,\ldots, n\}\Big| a < \frac{S_k(R_\alpha,f_\beta, x) - A_n(\alpha,\beta,x)}{B_n(\alpha,\beta)} < b\right\} \longrightarrow \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}} \int_a^b e^{-t^2/2} dt. \] The proof is based on a renormalization algorithm taking advantage of both the continued fraction expansion of $\alpha$ and the Ostrowski expansion of $\beta$, which provides a way of encoding the dynamics symbolically, in terms of a Markov chain. This symbolic coding allows to reduce the above main result to a central limit theorem for non-homogeneous Markov chains.