On the renormalizations of circle homeomorphisms with several break points (Q2172772)

The authors deal with circle homeomorphisms \(f\) whose derivative \(Df\) has jump discontinuities at several break points. First, they consider such maps as generalized interval maps of genus one; that is, given a open bounded interval \(I\), and an alphabet \(\mathcal A\) of \(d\geq 2\) symbols, the map \(f:I\rightarrow I\) is a bijection holding that \(f|_{I_{\alpha}}\) is an orientation-preserving homeomorphism for all \(\alpha\in \mathcal A\) (generalized interval map), and having at most two discontinuities (i.e., genus one). Second, they suppose that \(f\) is infinitely renormalizable, being \((R^n(f))\) the corresponding sequence of renormalizations of \(f\); if, in addition, \(f'\) is absolutely continuous and \(f''\in L_p\) for some \(p>1\) (Katznelson-Ornstein smoothness condition), and a certain combinatorial condition holds (too involved to be described in a simple way), then the authors prove that \(R^n(f)\) is approximated in \(C^1\)-norm and \(D^2 R^n(f)\) is approximated in \(L_1\)-norm (see Theorem \(3.1\)). As a consequence, if \(f\) has zero mean nonlinearity in \(I=[0,1]\), that is, \[\int_{[0,1]}\frac{f''(t)}{f'(t)}dt=0,\] in Theorem \(3.2\) they state that the renormalizations are approximated by piecewise affine interval exchange maps (classical interval exchange transformations). Let us mention that the paper contains a nice, accurate introduction to the problem of analyzing the dynamics of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of the circle, and its generalization to homeomorphisms with break points. Also, let us remark that, according to the words of the authors, the main tool on this paper is an argument from real analysis already used for \(C^{2+\nu}\)-smooth circle maps (see [\textit{K. M. Khanin} and \textit{Y. G. Sinai}, Russ. Math. Survey 44, 69--99 (1989; Zbl 0701.58053); \textit{K. M. Khanin} and \textit{E. B. Vul}, Adv. Soviet Math. 3, 57--98 (1991; Zbl 0733.58026)]), and for the Katznelson-Ornstein smooth condition (see [\textit {A. Begmatov} et al., Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 34, No. 11, 4487--4513 (2014; Zbl 1351.37168)]); also, the proofs are based on considerations from the theory of martingales (see [\textit{Y. Katznelson} and \textit{D. Ornstein}, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems 9, 681--690 (1989; \url{doi:10.1017/s0143}]) for its application to circle dynamics).