Dynamics of piecewise contractions of the interval

We study the asymptotical behaviour of iterates of piecewise contractive maps of the interval. It is known that Poincar\'e first return maps induced by some Cherry flows on transverse intervals are, up to topological conjugacy, piecewise contractions. These maps also appear in discretely controlled dynamical systems, describing the time evolution of manufacturing process adopting some decision-making policies. An injective map $f:[0,1)\to [0,1)$ is a {\it piecewise contraction of $n$ intervals}, if there exists a partition of the interval $[0,1)$ into $n$ intervals $I_1$,..., $I_n$ such that for every $i\in{1,...,n}$, the restriction $f|_{I_i}$ is $\kappa$-Lipschitz for some $\kappa\in (0,1)$. We prove that every piecewise contraction $f$ of $n$ intervals has at most $n$ periodic orbits. Moreover, we show that every piecewise contraction is topologically conjugate to a piecewise linear contraction

Piecewise contractions defined by iterated function systems

Let $\phi_1,\ldots,\phi_n:[0,1]\to (0,1)$ be Lipschitz contractions. Let $I=[0,1)$, $x_0=0$ and $x_n=1$. We prove that for Lebesgue almost every $(x_1,...,x_{n-1})$ satisfying $0<x_1<\cdots <x_{n-1}<1$, the piecewise contraction $f:I\to I$ defined by $x\in [x_{i-1},x_i)\mapsto \phi_i(x)$ is asymptotically periodic. More precisely, $f$ has at least one and at most $n$ periodic orbits and the $\omega$-limit set $\omega_f(x)$ is a periodic orbit of $f$ for every $x\in I$.Comment: 16 pages, two figure

Asymptotically periodic piecewise contractions of the interval

We consider the iterates of a generic injective piecewise contraction of the interval defined by a finite family of contractions. Let $\phi_i:[0,1]\to (0,1)$, $1\le i\le n$, be $C^2$-diffeomorphisms with $\sup_{x\in (0,1)} \vert D\phi_i(x)\vert<1$ whose images $\phi_1([0,1]), \ldots, \phi_n([0,1])$ are pairwise disjoint. Let $0<x_1<\cdots<x_{n-1}<1$ and let $I_1,\ldots, I_n$ be a partition of the interval $[0,1)$ into subintervals $I_i$ having interior $(x_{i-1},x_i)$, where $x_0=0$ and $x_n=1$. Let $f_{x_1,\ldots,x_{n-1}}$ be the map given by $x\mapsto \phi_i(x)$ if $x\in I_i$, for $1\le i\le n$. Among other results we prove that for Lebesgue almost every $(x_1,\ldots,x_{n-1})$, the piecewise contraction $f_{x_1,\ldots,x_{n-1}}$ is asymptotically periodic.Comment: 8 page