No label defined (Q4952910)

Let \((\mathbb T, \alpha)\) denote an irrational rotation of the circle, and let \(f :\mathbb T \to\mathbb R\) be a measurable function referred to as a cocycle. By a cylinder flow we mean a skew product action on \(\mathbb T\times \mathbb R\) given by \(T_f (x,y) = (x + \alpha, y + f(x))\). The subject of the paper is an indication of a new class of ergodic cylinder flows induced by \(k\) times differentiable cocycles with zero integral. Moreover, some stability of the ergodicity property is established within this class. Namely, the main result asserts that if the \(k\)th derivative of \(f\) is piecewise absolutely continuous (but not continuous) with finitely many jumps at points \(\beta_i\) (\(i = 1,2,\dots, d\)), such that the sum of the jumps is zero, and \(\alpha\) satisfies the following condition: for some subsequence of denominators \((q_n)\) in the continued fraction expansion of \(\alpha\), \[ \lim_{n\to\infty} q_n^{k+1}\|q_n\alpha\|= 0 \text{ and }\lim_{n\to\infty}\{q_n\beta_i\}=\gamma_i, \] with \(\gamma_i\) distinct for distinct indices \(i\), then \(T_f\) is ergodic (\(\|\cdot\|\) denotes the distance from the nearest integer, and \(\{\cdot\}\) denotes the fractional part). Moreover, there exists an \(\varepsilon>0\) (depending on \(f\)) such that for any \(k\) times differentiable cocycle \(v\) with zero integral, whose \(k\)th derivative has variation bounded by \(\varepsilon\), the action of \(T_{f+v}\) is still ergodic. An interesting tool used in the main proof is a generalization of the so-called Denjoy-Koksma inequality, which estimates the iterated cocycle \(f^{(s_n)}\) by means of the variation of the \(k\)th derivative of \(f\). It is worth noticing that former results [see \textit{D. A. Pask}, Isr. J. Math. 69, No. 1, 65-74 (1990; Zbl 0703.28009), Isr. J. Math. 76, No. 1/2, 129-152 (1991; Zbl 0764.28011), and \textit{M. Lemańczyk, F. Parreau} and \textit{D. Volný}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 348, No. 12, 4919-4938 (1996; Zbl 0876.28021)] concern the case where the sum of jumps of the last derivative of \(f\) is non zero.