Dynamics of continued fractions and kneading sequences of unimodal maps (Q1948747)

The authors study a correspondence between the parameter spaces of unimodal maps and \(\alpha\)-continued fraction transformations, and derive several interesting results from this correspondence. For \(\alpha \in (0,1]\), the \(\alpha\)-continued fraction transformation is the map \(T_\alpha : [\alpha - 1, \alpha] \to [\alpha - 1, \alpha]\) defined by \[ T_\alpha (x) = \frac{1}{|x|} - \lfloor \frac{1}{|x|} + 1 - \alpha \rfloor. \] Let \(h (\alpha)\) be the metric entropy of \(T_\alpha\) with respect to the unique invariant probability measure that is absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure. The entropy \(h\) is monotone on intervals in the parameter space for which the orbits of \(1 - \alpha\) and \(\alpha\) coincide after finitely many steps [\textit{H. Nakada} and \textit{R. Natsui}, Nonlinearity 21, No. 6, 1207--1225 (2008; Zbl 1143.11024)]. Let \(\mathcal{E}\) be the complement of the set consisting of these intervals. To any unimodal map, one can associate a kneading invariant that can be represented by a point in the set \[ \Lambda = \{\, x \in [0,1] : T^k x \leq x,\;\forall k \geq 0 \,\}, \] where \(T\) denotes the tent map [\textit{S. Isola}, Far East J. Dyn. Syst. 6, No. 1, 79--96 (2004; Zbl 1083.37037); \textit{S. Isola} and \textit{A. Politi}, ``Universal encoding for unimodal maps'', J. Statist. Phys. 61, No. 1--2, 263--291(1990)]. The set \(\Lambda\) also parametrises the real slice of the boundary of the Mandelbrot set. The authors prove that there is a homeomorphism \(\phi : \mathcal{E} \to \Lambda \setminus \{0\}\) and give an explicit expression for \(\phi (x)\) in terms of the continued fraction expansion of \(x\). This result is then used to derive several consequences, among which some are mentioned below. The intervals in \(\Lambda^c\) are in a one-to-one correspondence with the real hyperbolic components of the Mandelbrot set, and these intervals can be mapped to parameter intervals for the quadratic family for which entropy is constant. The authors determine a correspondence between non-periodic points in \(\Lambda\) and univoque numbers (a number \(q\) is called univoque if \(q\) has a unique expansion in base \(q\)). This yields new proofs of several previously known results on univoque numbers, as well as some new results on the transendence of univoque numbers. The results on the set \(\mathcal{E}\) answers some questions posed by \textit{J. Cassaigne} in [Theor. Comput. Sci. 218, No. 1, 3--12 (1999; Zbl 0916.68115)].