On the mixing properties of piecewise expanding maps under composition with permutations (Q379503)

This paper studies the quantitative mixing properties of the class of maps on the interval obtained by composing a piecewise smooth interval map with a permutation of the subintervals obtained by dividing the interval into finitely many subintervals of equal length. The special case obtained by starting with the map \(f(x)=mx\) mod \(1\) for an integer \(m\geq2\) and composing it with a permutation of \(N\) equal subintervals is studied in detail. Those permutations for which the resulting map is topologically mixing are described in combinatorial terms, and it is shown that the proportion of such permutations tends to \(1\) as \(N\rightarrow\infty\). The quantitative question has an unexpected answer: in contrast to the case of continuous-time diffusive systems, it is shown here that composition with a permutation cannot improve the mixing rate of \(f\), and typically reduces the rate of mixing. Under mild assumptions on \(m\) and \(N\), a precise value for the worst mixing rate as the permutation ranges over all permutations is found, and in particular it is shown that this can be made arbitrarily close to \(1\) as \(N\rightarrow\infty\) with fixed \(m\). The location of the second largest eigenvalues in the complex plane as the permutation varies is explored numerically, and a conjecture is formulated concerning their location in general. Examples are found of other interval maps that behave differently when composed with permutations of this sort.