Kneading determinants and spectra of transfer operators in higher dimensions, the isotropic case

Transfer operators M_k acting on k-forms in R^n are associated to smooth transversal local diffeomorphisms and compactly supported weight functions. A formal trace is defined by summing the product of the weight and the Lefschetz sign over all fixed points of all the diffeos. This yields a formal Ruelle-Lefschetz determinant Det^#(1-zM). We use the Milnor-Ruelle-Kitaev equality (recently proved by Baillif), which expressed Det^#(1-zM) as an alternated product of determinants of kneading operators,Det(1+D_k(z)), to relate zeroes and poles of the Ruelle-Lefschetz determinant to the spectra of the transfer operators M_k. As an application, we get a new proof of a theorem of Ruelle on smooth expanding dynamics.Comment: This replaces the April 2004 version: a gap was fixed in Lemma 6 (regarding order of poles) and the Axioms corrected and generalise

Linear response for intermittent maps

We consider the one parameter family $\alpha \mapsto T_\alpha$ ($\alpha \in [0,1)$) of Pomeau-Manneville type interval maps $T_\alpha(x)=x(1+2^\alpha x^\alpha)$ for $x \in [0,1/2)$ and $T_\alpha(x)=2x-1$ for $x \in [1/2, 1]$, with the associated absolutely continuous invariant probability measure $\mu_\alpha$. For $\alpha \in (0,1)$, Sarig and Gou\"ezel proved that the system mixes only polynomially with rate $n^{1-1/\alpha}$ (in particular, there is no spectral gap). We show that for any $\psi\in L^q$, the map $\alpha \to \int_0^1 \psi\, d\mu_\alpha$ is differentiable on $[0,1-1/q)$, and we give a (linear response) formula for the value of the derivative. This is the first time that a linear response formula for the SRB measure is obtained in the setting of slowly mixing dynamics. Our argument shows how cone techniques can be used in this context. For $\alpha \ge 1/2$ we need the $n^{-1/\alpha}$ decorrelation obtained by Gou\"ezel under additional conditions.Comment: Minor typos corrected. To appear in Comm. Math. Phy

Zeta functions and Dynamical Systems

In this brief note we present a very simple strategy to investigate dynamical determinants for uniformly hyperbolic systems. The construction builds on the recent introduction of suitable functional spaces which allow to transform simple heuristic arguments in rigorous ones. Although the results so obtained are not exactly optimal the straightforwardness of the argument makes it noticeable.Comment: 7 pages, no figuer

Fractal diffusion coefficient from dynamical zeta functions

Dynamical zeta functions provide a powerful method to analyze low dimensional dynamical systems when the underlying symbolic dynamics is under control. On the other hand even simple one dimensional maps can show an intricate structure of the grammar rules that may lead to a non smooth dependence of global observable on parameters changes. A paradigmatic example is the fractal diffusion coefficient arising in a simple piecewise linear one dimensional map of the real line. Using the Baladi-Ruelle generalization of the Milnor-Thurnston kneading determinant we provide the exact dynamical zeta function for such a map and compute the diffusion coefficient from its smallest zero.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Linear response formula for piecewise expanding unimodal maps

The average R(t) of a smooth function with respect to the SRB measure of a smooth one-parameter family f_t of piecewise expanding interval maps is not always Lipschitz. We prove that if f_t is tangent to the topological class of f_0, then R(t) is differentiable at zero, and the derivative coincides with the resummation previously proposed by the first named author of the (a priori divergent) series given by Ruelle's conjecture.Comment: We added Theorem 7.1 which shows that the horizontality condition is necessary. The paper "Smooth deformations..." containing Thm 2.8 is now available on the arxiv; see also Corrigendum arXiv:1205.5468 (to appear Nonlinearity 2012

Natural boundary for the susceptibility function of generic piecewise expanding unimodal maps

We consider the susceptibility function Psi(z) of a piecewise expanding unimodal interval map f with unique acim mu, a perturbation X, and an observable phi. Combining previous results (deduced from spectral properties of Ruelle transfer operators) with recent work of Breuer-Simon (based on techniques from the spectral theory of Jacobi matrices and a classical paper of Agmon), we show that density of the postcritical orbit (a generic condition) implies that Psi(z) has a strong natural boundary on the unit circle. The Breuer-Simon method provides uncountably many candidates for the outer functions of Psi(z), associated to precritical orbits. If the perturbation X is horizontal, a generic condition (Birkhoff typicality of the postcritical orbit) implies that the nontangential limit of the Psi(z) as z tends to 1 exists and coincides with the derivative of the acim with respect to the map (linear response formula). Applying the Wiener-Wintner theorem, we study the singularity type of nontangential limits as z tends to e^{i\omega}. An additional LIL typicality assumption on the postcritical orbit gives stronger results.Comment: LaTex, 23 pages, to appear ETD

Dissipation time and decay of correlations

We consider the effect of noise on the dynamics generated by volume-preserving maps on a d-dimensional torus. The quantity we use to measure the irreversibility of the dynamics is the dissipation time. We focus on the asymptotic behaviour of this time in the limit of small noise. We derive universal lower and upper bounds for the dissipation time in terms of various properties of the map and its associated propagators: spectral properties, local expansivity, and global mixing properties. We show that the dissipation is slow for a general class of non-weakly-mixing maps; on the opposite, it is fast for a large class of exponentially mixing systems which include uniformly expanding maps and Anosov diffeomorphisms.Comment: 26 Pages, LaTex. Submitted to Nonlinearit

On the susceptibility function of piecewise expanding interval maps

We study the susceptibility function Psi(z) associated to the perturbation f_t=f+tX of a piecewise expanding interval map f. The analysis is based on a spectral description of transfer operators. It gives in particular sufficient conditions which guarantee that Psi(z) is holomorphic in a disc of larger than one. Although Psi(1) is the formal derivative of the SRB measure of f_t with respect to t, we present examples satisfying our conditions so that the SRB measure is not Lipschitz.*We propose a new version of Ruelle's conjectures.* In v2, we corrected a few minor mistakes and added Conjectures A-B and Remark 4.5. In v3, we corrected the perturbation (X(f(x)) instead of X(x)), in particular in the examples from Section 6. As a consequence, Psi(z) has a pole at z=1 for these examples.Comment: To appear Comm. Math. Phy