One-dimensional dynamics in the new millennium (Q972041)

This survey paper is devoted to the dynamics of the iterates of smooth mappings \(f:[0,1]\to[0,1]\) and \(f:S^1\to S^1\), where \(S^1\) stands for the unit circle. Connections to smooth dynamics in higher dimensions and to holomorphic dynamics in one complex variable is also discussed. From the author's text: ``The purpose of this paper is to survey some of the recent developments, and pose some of the challenges and questions that keep this subject so intriguing. One of the appealing aspects of the study of iterations of maps of the interval is that the situation is far from trivial, and yet the theory is remarkably complete.'' Another reason for interest in this subject is that ``\dots one-dimensional dynamics can be viewed as a model for what one might hope for dynamical systems in higher dimensions''. The material discussed by the author includes the following topics: metric and topological attractors, Hausdorff dimension of attractors, wandering intervals, distortion estimates; density of hyperbolic mappings, the Closing Lemma, quasi-symmetric rigidity; ergodic theory of interval mappings, absolutely continuous invariant measures, the Palis Conjecture. ``Renormalisation theory'' is intentionally left out of this survey. A new edition of [\textit{W. de Melo} and \textit{S. van Strien}, ``One-dimensional dynamics'', Berlin: Springer-Verlag (1993; Zbl 0791.58003)] describe the state of art in this important topic.