Denjoy systems and substitutions (Q841436)

Let \(\mathcal{A}=\{0,\dots,d\}\) be an alphabet and \(\mathcal{A}^\star\) the free monoid over \(\mathcal{A}\) with the empty word \(\varepsilon_\emptyset\) as identity element. The reversal of a finite word \(w= w_1\cdots w_n\) is given by \(\overleftarrow{w}= w_n \cdots w_1\). A substitution \(\sigma\) over \(\mathcal{A}\) is a map \(\mathcal{A} \to \mathcal{A}^\star \setminus \{\varepsilon_\emptyset\}\) and can be extended to a morphism of \(\mathcal{A}^\star\) naturally. The reversal substitution \(\overleftarrow{\sigma}\) is given by \(\overleftarrow{\sigma}(i) := \overleftarrow{\sigma(i)}\) for all \(i \in \mathcal{A}\). Let \((\sigma_1,\sigma_2,\dots)\) be any infinite sequence of substitutions. This sequence generates a right infinite word \(w=w_1w_2\cdots\) if \[ w=\lim_{n \to \infty} \sigma_1\sigma_2 \cdots \sigma_n(i) \qquad \text{for all \(i \in \mathcal{A}\)}. \] The sequence \((\sigma_n)_n\) generates the bi-infinite word \(w=\cdots w_{-1}w_0w_1\cdots\) if \((\sigma_n)_n\) generates \(w_0w_1\cdots\) and \((\overleftarrow{\sigma_n})_n\) generates \(w_{-1}w_{-2}\cdots\). The paper considers the following coding of an irrational rotation. Let \(S^1=\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\) and \(R_\alpha:S^1 \to S^1\) be the rotation \(R_\alpha(z) = z+\alpha\) modulo \(\mathbb{Z}\) (with \(\alpha \in \mathbb{R}\)). We identify \(S^1\) with \([0,1)\) and consider a finite ordered sequence \(\Lambda= \{\omega_1< \dots <\omega_{d_1}\}\) with \(\omega_i \in (0,1)\). \(\Lambda\) induces the partition \(t_0(0) =[0,\omega_0)\), \(t_0(i)=[\omega_{i-1},\omega_i)\) for \(i=1,\dots,d\) with \(\omega_d=1\). We have the following map: \[ J:S^1 \to \mathcal{A}^\mathbb{Z}, \omega \mapsto \big(J(\omega)_n\big)_{n \in \mathbb{Z}} \] with \(J(\omega)_n = i \iff R_\alpha^n(\omega) \in t_0(i)\). The paper generalizes the following ``folklore'' proposition for two-digit alphabets to \(d\)-digit alphabets using techniques based on Denjoy systems, Bratteli-Vershik systems and substitution systems. Proposition: Take \(d=1\) and \(\mathcal{A}=\{0,1\}\) the two-digit alphabet. Let \(\alpha = [0,a_1,a_2,\dots]\) be the (regular) infinite continued fraction of the irrational \(\alpha \in [0,1)\). Put \(\sigma_n(0)=0\underbrace{1 \cdots 1}_{a_n \text{ times}}\) and \(\sigma_n(1)=0\underbrace{1 \cdots 1}_{a_n-1 \text{ times}}\) for each \(n \in \mathbb{Z}\). Then the sequence \((\sigma_1,\overleftarrow{\sigma}_2\sigma_3,\overleftarrow{\sigma}_4, \dots)\) generates \(J_\alpha(\alpha)\).