Iterative roots of PM functions extended from the characteristic interval (Q6185265)

The authors deal with the problem of existence of iterative roots for some classes of piecewise monotone functions (PM functions) from an interval \(I:=[a,b]\) into itself. Denote by \(S(F)\) the set of all non-monotonic points of the function \(F\). It is known that the number \(N(F)=\#S(F)\) satisfies the relation \[ 0=N(F^0)\le N(F)\le N(F^2)\le\cdots \le N(F^n)\le \cdots \] and if \(N(F^k)=N(F^{k+1})\) for an integer \(k>0\), then \(N(F^k)=N(F^{k+i})\) for all integers \(i\ge 1\). The height of \(F\), \(H(F)\), is defined either as the least integer \(k\) such that \(N(F^k)=N(F^{k+1})\) or \(\infty\). \textit{J. Zhang} and \textit{L. Yang} [Acta Math. Sin. 26, 398--412 (1983; Zbl 0529.39006)] proved that if \(H(F)=1\) there exists a maximal monotone subinterval of \(I\) covering the range of \(F\), called characteristic interval of \(F\) and denoted by \(K(F)\), such that some iterative roots of \(F\) can be constructed by continuous extension from \(K(F)\). \textit{W. Zhang} [Ann. Pol. Math. 65, No. 2, 119--128 (1997; Zbl 0873.39009)] proved that if \(F\in \mathrm{PM}(I)\) and \(H(F)\ge 2\), then \(F\) has no continuous iterative root of order \(n\) whenever \(n> N(F)\). Then he posed the following problem: Does any \(F\in \mathrm{PM}(I)\) with \(H(F)\ge 2\) have a continuous iterative root of order not exceeding \(N(F)\)? In the present paper the authors extend the procedure of determining iterative roots to a class of PM functions using the notion of characteristic interval and give sufficient conditions to extend the iterative roots of PM functions from the characteristic interval. Then a sufficient condition is provided for constructing an \(n\)-th iterative root \(f\) of \(F\in \mathrm{PM}(I)\) with \(H(F)\ge 2\) and \(N(f)=N(F)-(n-1)\).