Structure of attractors for \((a,b)\)-continued fraction transformations (Q630029)

This paper studies a particular two-parameter family of one-dimensional maps \(f_{a,b}\) over a certain parameter space \(\mathcal{P} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2\). The authors state that, based on numerical experiments, D. Zagier conjectured that the natural extension map \(F_{a,b}\) of \(f_{a,b}\) satisfies the Reduction Theory Conjecture for all of \(\mathcal{P}\). The authors' main result is that the natural extension maps have attractors with finite rectangular structure for all of \(\mathcal{P}\) except for a one-dimensional set of zero Lebesgue measure and that for an open dense subset of \(\mathcal{P}\) every point enters the attractor after a finite number of iterations of \(F_{a,b}\). Furthermore, they explain how their results apply to the study of invariant measures and ergodic properties of the associated Gauss-like maps. Some of the results in this paper were announced previously by the authors [Electron. Res. Announc. Math. Sci. 17, 20--33 (2010; Zbl 1193.37040)].