On the widths of the Arnol'd tongues (Q2928245)

The author studies the family of circle diffeomorphisms induced by the family \((F_t:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R})_{t\in\mathbb{R}}\), where \(F_t(x)=F(x)+t\) for all \(x,t\in\mathbb{R}\) is a translation of a fixed real analytic increasing diffeomorphism \(F:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}\) such that \(F-\text{Id}\) is \(1\)-periodic. The translation number of \(F_t\) is given by NEWLINE\[NEWLINE \text{Trans}(F_t)=\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{F_t^n-\text{Id}}{n}. NEWLINE\]NEWLINE NEWLINEAn Arnold tongue of a one-parameter family \((F_t:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R})_{t\in\mathbb{R}}\) is a set of parameters where the map \(t\mapsto \text{Trans}(F_t)\), associating the translation number to a parameter, is locally-constant (this may happen only if this number is rational). The main result states that if \(F\) has a Herman ring with modulus \(2\tau\) and irrational translation number \(\alpha\), then the width \(\ell_n\) of the Arnold tongue associated with \(p_n/q_n\), where \(p_n/q_n\) denotes the \(n\)-th continued fraction convergent of \(\alpha\), decreases exponentially fast with respect to \(q_n\), that is, NEWLINE\[NEWLINE \limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{1}{q_n}\log \ell_{n}\leq -2\pi\tau. NEWLINE\]NEWLINE This improves an estimate on the decay of \(\ell_n\) one may derive from the work of \textit{M. R. Herman} [Lect. Notes Math. 597, 271--293 (1977; Zbl 0366.57007)], which implies that \(\ell_{n}\) decreases faster than \(1/q_n^2\). However, this bound holds for a larger set of parameters \(\alpha\), because the author assumes the existence of a Herman ring.