Rigidity of critical circle mappings, I

We prove that two $C^r$ critical circle maps with the same rotation number of bounded type are $C^{1+\alpha}$ conjugate for some $\alpha>0$ provided their successive renormalizations converge together at an exponential rate in the $C^0$ sense. The number $\alpha$ depends only on the rate of convergence. We also give examples of $C^\infty$ critical circle maps with the same rotation number that are not $C^{1+\beta}$ conjugate for any $\beta>0$

On Sloane's persistence problem

We investigate the so-called persistence problem of Sloane, exploiting connections with the dynamics of circle maps and the ergodic theory of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ actions. We also formulate a conjecture concerning the asymptotic distribution of digits in long products of finitely many primes whose truth would, in particular, solve the persistence problem. The heuristics that we propose to complement our numerical studies can be thought in terms of a simple model in statistical mechanics.Comment: 5 figure

Global hyperbolicity of renormalization for C^r unimodal mappings

In this paper we extend M. Lyubich's recent results on the global hyperbolicity of renormalization of quadratic-like germs to the space of C^r unimodal maps with quadratic critical point. We show that in this space the bounded-type limit sets of the renormalization operator have an invariant hyperbolic structure provided r ge 2+ alpha with alpha close to one. As an intermediate step between Lyubich's results and ours, we prove that the renormalization operator is hyperbolic in a Banach space of real analytic maps. We construct the local stable manifolds and prove that they form a continuous lamination whose leaves are C^1 codimension one, Banach submanifolds of the ambient space, and whose holonomy is C^{1+\beta} for some beta >0. We also prove that the global stable sets are C^1 immersed (codimension one) submanifolds as well, provided r ge 3+ alpha with alpha close to one. As a corollary, we deduce that in generic, one-parameter families of C^r unimodal maps, the set of parameters corresponding to infinitely renormalizable maps of bounded combinatorial type is a Cantor set with Hausdorff dimension less than one.Comment: 94 pages, published versio