Finite type coarse expanding conformal dynamics (Q664248)

The authors extend their previous work [Coarse expanding conformal dynamics. Astérisque 325. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (SMF). (2009; Zbl 1206.37002)] by introducing a finiteness feature analogous to Cannon's finiteness of cone types for hyperbolic groups~[\textit{J. W. Cannon}, ``The growth of the closed surface groups and the compact hyperbolic Coxeter groups,'' Unpublished typescript (1983)]. The authors' setting is quite general, and topological: a finite branched covering \(f:\mathfrak X_1\to \mathfrak X_0\) with \(\mathfrak X_1\) compactly contained in \(\mathfrak X_0\), with repellor \(X=\bigcap_{n\geq0}f^{-n}(\mathfrak X_1)\). The dynamics on \(X\) is ``topologically coarsely expanding'' if (1) there is a finite covering \(\mathcal U_0\) of \(X\) by connected relatively open sets, such that every finite open cover of \(X\) is refined by the connected components \(\mathcal U_n\) of the \(f^n\)-preimage of \(\mathcal U_0\); (2) there is a uniform bound on the local degrees of compositions \(f^k:\tilde U\to U\) with \(\tilde U\in\mathcal U_{n+k}\) and \(U\in\mathcal U_n\); and (3) an irreducibility condition. In particular, there are finitely many topological types of restrictions \(f^k|\tilde U\). In particular, if \(X\) is endowed with a metric, (1) implies that the diameters of elements of \(\mathcal U_n\) tend to \(0\). Still in the presence of a metric, the dynamics is called ``coarse expanding conformal'' if the ``roundness'' (inner radius/outer radius) of the elements of \(\mathcal U_n\) is uniformly bounded, and the scaling factor on the diameters of \(f^k:\mathcal U_{n+k}\to\mathcal U_n\) is also uniformly bounded. The authors define a ``dynatlas'' as a finite collection of ``model'' maps \(\tilde V\to V\) between diameter-\(1\) metric spaces; let \(\mathcal V\) be the collection of spaces \(V,\tilde V\) involved. The dynamical system \((X,f)\) is of ``metric finite type'' if, for some constant \(C\), every \(U\in \mathcal U_n\) is \(C\)-quasisimilar to some model \(V\in\mathcal V\) by a map \(\psi_U:U\to V\), and whenever \(U\in\mathcal U_n\), \(\tilde U\in\mathcal U_{n+k}\) and \(f^k:\tilde U\to U\), the composition \(\psi_U\circ f^k\circ\psi_{\tilde U}^{-1}\) belongs to the dynatlas. The authors prove (Theorem 2.8) that metric finite type dynamical systems are coarse expanding conformal. Furthermore, by their previous work~[Zbl 1206.37002], that metric is unique up to quasisymmetry. They then specialize these notions to important cases. They show (Corollary 3.14) that finite subdivision rules with bounded valence on the \(2\)-sphere are of metric finite type. They then consider ``self-similar groups''; these are groups \(G\) endowed with an action on the rooted tree of words \(X^*\), such that for every \(g\in G,x\in X\) there exist \(y\in X,h\in G\) with \((xw)^g=yw^h\) for all \(w\in X^*\). They are ``contracting'' if, roughly \(\|h\|\ll\|g\|\). Following work by \textit{V. Nekrashevych} [Self-similar groups. Mathematical Surveys and Monographs 117. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2005; Zbl 1087.20032)], there is a tight connection between self-similar groups and dynamical systems: in one direction, the fundamental group \(\pi_1(X,*)\) is naturally a self-similar group; in the other, construct the graph \(\Sigma\) with vertex set \(X^*\), and edges between \(w\) and \(xw\) for all \(x\in X,w\in W\) and between \(w\) and \(w^g\) for all \(w\in W\) and \(g\) in a chosen generating set of \(G\). Then, if \(G\) is contracting, \(\Sigma\) is Gromov-hyperbolic and its boundary \(\partial\Sigma\) admits a dynamical system inherited from the ``shift'' map on \(X^*\). The authors prove that this dynamical system is metric finite type; in fact, better than that, they show that the model spaces \(\mathcal V\) may be taken to be the (scaled) ``umbrae'' of \(\Sigma\), namely, essentially the images in \(\partial\Sigma\) of the cones \(wX^*\) in \(\Sigma\).