We investigate the distribution of lengths obtained by intersecting a random geodesic with a geodesic lamination. We give an explicit formula for the distribution for the case of a maximal lamination and show that the distribution is independent of the surface and lamination. We also show how the moments of the distribution are related to the Riemann zeta function.

We study a class of strongly irreducible, multidimensional, topological Markov shifts, comparing two notions of ‘symmetric measure’: exchangeability and the Gibbs (or conformal) property. We show that equilibrium measures for such shifts (unique and weak Bernoulli in the one-dimensional case) exhibit a variety of spectral properties.

We investigate the β-expansion of an algebraic number in an algebraic base β. Using tools from Diophantine approximation, we prove several results that may suggest a strong difference between the asymptotic behaviour of eventually periodic expansions and that of non-eventually periodic expansions.

In the present paper we introduce positive flows and processes, which generalize ordinary dynamical systems and stochastic processes. The theory of positive flows and processes is based on the methods of positive operator theory and operator algebras theory. Its basic concepts are the phase and positive algebras, the spectral potential, dual entropy, equilibrium measures, action functional, sensitive states, and empirical measures. Within the frames of the theory we prove the law of large numbers with respect to the sensitive states and calculate asymptotics for the probabilities of large deviations in terms of the action functional.

For projectivizations of rational maps, Bellon and Viallet defined the notion of algebraic entropy using the exponential growth rate of the degrees of iterates. We want to call this notion to the attention of dynamicists by computing algebraic entropy for certain rational maps of projective spaces (Theorem 6.2) and comparing it with topological entropy (Theorem 5.1). The particular rational maps we study are monomial maps (Definition 1.2), which are closely related to toral endomorphisms. Theorems 5.1 and 6.2 that imply that the algebraic entropy of a monomial map is always bounded above by its topological entropy, and that the inequality is strict if the defining matrix has more than one eigenvalue outside the unit circle. Also, Bellon and Viallet conjectured that the algebraic entropy of every rational map is the logarithm of an algebraic integer, and Theorem 6.2 establishes this for monomial maps. However, a simple example using a monomial map shows that a stronger conjecture of Bellon and Viallet is incorrect, in that the sequence of algebraic degrees of the iterates of a rational map of projective space need not satisfy a linear recurrence relation with constant coefficients.

We prove that there is a residual subset $\mathcal{I}$ of ${\rm Diff}^1({\it M})$ such that any homoclinic class of a diffeomorphism $f\in \mathcal{I}$ having saddles of indices $\alpha$ and $\beta$ contains a dense subset of saddles of index $\tau$ for every $\tau\in [\alpha,\beta]\cap \mathbb{N}$. We also derive some consequences from this result about the Lyapunov exponents of periodic points and the sort of bifurcations inside homoclinic classes of $C^1$-generic diffeomorphisms.

It is shown how regular model sets can be characterized in terms of the regularity properties of their associated dynamical systems. The proof proceeds in two steps. First, we characterize regular model sets in terms of a certain map $\beta$ and then relate the properties of $\beta$ to those of the underlying dynamical system. As a by-product, we can show that regular model sets are, in a suitable sense, as close to periodic sets as possible among repetitive aperiodic sets.

This paper gives a direct and elementary proof of the fact that under hypotheses of Tonelli type, solutions to the basic problem in the calculus of variations are Lipschitz when the Lagrangian is autonomous. This fact was first proved by Clarke and Vinter in 1985, using other methods.

We prove that in a compact manifold of dimension n≥2, C1+α volume-preserving diffeomorphisms that are robustly transitive in the C1-topology have a dominated splitting. Also we prove that for three-dimensional compact manifolds, an isolated robustly transitive invariant set for a divergence-free vector field cannot have a singularity. In particular, we prove that robustly transitive divergence-free vector fields in three-dimensional manifolds are Anosov. For this, we prove a ‘pasting’ lemma, which allows us to make perturbations in conservative systems.

We show that some very naturally occurring energy manifolds that are induced by second-order Lagrangians $L =L(u,u',u'')$ are not, in general, of contact type in $(\mathbb{R}^4,\omega)$. We also comment on the more general question whether there exist any contact forms on these energy manifolds for which the associated Reeb vector field coincides with the Hamiltonian vector field.

We establish the analogue for maps on trees of the result established by Bobok (Studia Math.152 (2002), 249–261 and Studia Math.166 (2005), 11–27) for interval maps, that a continuous self-map for which all but countably many points have at least $m$ preimages (and none have less than two) has topological entropy bounded below by $\log m$.

Let $f_1$ and $f_2$ be rational maps with Julia sets $J_1$ and $J_2$, and let $\Psi:J_1\to \mathbb{P}^1$ be any continuous map such that $\Psi\circ f_1=f_2\circ \Psi$ on $J_1$. We show that if $\Psi$ is $\mathbb{C}$-differentiable, with non-vanishing derivative, at some repelling periodic point $z_1\in J_1$, then $\Psi$ admits an analytic extension to $\mathbb{P}^1\setminus {\mathcal E}_1$, where ${\mathcal E}_1$ is the exceptional set of $f_1$. Moreover, this extension is a semiconjugacy. This generalizes a result of Julia (Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. (3) 40 (1923), 97–150). Furthermore, if ${\mathcal E}_1=\emptyset$ then the extended map $\Psi$ is rational, and in this situation $\Psi(J_1)=J_2$ and $\Psi^{-1}(J_2)=J_1$, provided that $\Psi$ is not constant. On the other hand, if ${\mathcal E}_1\neq \emptyset$ then the extended map may be transcendental: for example, when $f_1$ is a power map (conjugate to $z\mapsto z^{\pm d}$) or a Chebyshev map (conjugate to $\pm \text{Х}_d$ with $\text{Х}_d(z+z^{-1}) = z^d+z^{-d}$), and when $f_2$ is an integral Lattès example (a quotient of the multiplication by an integer on a torus). Eremenko (Algebra i Analiz1(4) (1989), 102–116) proved that these are the only such examples. We present a new proof.

A locally free action of a Lie group is parameter rigid if for each other action with the same orbit foliation there exists a orbit-preserving diffeomorphism which conjugates the action to a reparametrization of the other by an automorphism of the Lie group. We show that for actions of the Heisenberg groups, if the first leafwise cohomology group of the orbit foliation is isomorphic to the first cohomology of the Lie algebra of the group, then the action is parameter rigid. Using this, we give examples of parameter rigid actions for all of the Heisenberg groups.

We study frequently hypercyclic operators, a natural new concept in hypercyclicity that was recently introduced by F. Bayart and S. Grivaux. We derive a strengthened version of their Frequent Hypercyclicity Criterion, which allows us to obtain examples of frequently hypercyclic operators in a straightforward way. Moreover, Bayart and Grivaux have noted that the frequent hypercyclicity setting differs from general hypercyclicity in that the set of frequently hypercyclic vectors need not be residual. We show here that, under weak assumptions, this set is only of first category. Motivated by this we study the question of whether one may write every vector in the underlying space as the sum of two frequently hypercyclic vectors. This investigation leads us to the introduction of a new notion, that of Runge transitivity.

We consider a class of Gibbs measures on self-affine Sierpiński carpets and perform the multifractal analysis of its elements. These deterministic measures are Gibbs measures associated with bundle random dynamical systems defined on probability spaces whose geometrical structure plays a central role. A special subclass of these measures is the class of multinomial measures on Sierpiński carpets. Our result improves the already known result concerning the multifractal nature of the elements of this subclass by considerably weakening and in some cases even eliminating a strong separation condition of geometrical nature.

We show that there is a spectral gap for the transfer operator associated with a rational map $f$ on the Riemann sphere. Using this and the method of perturbed operators, we establish the (local) central limit theorem for the measure of maximal entropy of $f$, with an estimate on the speed of convergence.

On the cylinder ${\mathbb T}\times{\mathbb R}^1$, smooth dynamical systems are constructed that, in spite of being smoothly conjugate on an invariant covering, are not topologically conjugate globally.

By definition, an $\omega$-residually free tower is positive-genus if all surfaces used in its construction are of positive-genus. We prove that every limit group is virtually a subgroup of a positive-genus, $\omega$-residually free tower. By combining this construction with results of Gaboriau, we prove that elementarily free groups are measure-equivalent to free groups.

We prove that for a C1-generic (dense Gδ) subset of all the conservative vector fields on three-dimensional compact manifolds without singularities, we have for Lebesgue almost every (a.e.) point p∈M that either the Lyapunov exponents at p are zero or X is an Anosov vector field. Then we prove that for a C1-dense subset of all the conservative vector fields on three-dimensional compact manifolds, we have for Lebesgue a.e. p∈M that either the Lyapunov exponents at p are zero or p belongs to a compact invariant set with dominated splitting for the linear Poincaré flow.

We prove two continuity theorems for the Lyapunov exponents of the maximal entropy measure of polynomial automorphisms of $\mathbb{C}^2$. The first continuity result holds for any family of polynomial automorphisms of constant dynamical degree. The second result is the continuity of the upper exponent for families degenerating to a one-dimensional map.