Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:12:34.302Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The lap-counting function for linear mod one transformations II: the Markov chain for generalized lapnumbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2001

LEOPOLD FLATTO
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974, USA
JEFFREY C. LAGARIAS
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974, USA

Abstract

Linear mod one transformations are those maps of the unit interval given by $f_{\beta,\alpha}(x)=\beta x+\alpha$ (mod 1), with $\beta>1$ and $0\le\alpha<1$. The lap-counting function is $L_{\beta,\alpha}(z)=\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} L_{n}z^{n}$, where $L_{n}$ essentially counts the number of monotonic pieces of the $n$th iterate $f_{\beta,\alpha}^{n}$. Part I showed that the function $L_{\beta,\alpha}(z)$ is meromorphic on the unit disk $|z|<1$ and analytic on $|z|<1/\beta$. This paper shows that the singularities of $L_{\beta,\alpha}(z)$ on the circle $|z|=1/\beta$ are contained in the set $\{(1/\beta)\exp (2\pi il/N):0\le l\le N-1\}$, for some integer $N\ge 1$. Here $N$ can be taken to be the period $N_{\beta,\alpha}$ of a certain Markov chain $\Sigma_{\beta,\alpha}$ which encodes information about generalized lap numbers $L_{n}(i,j)$ of $f_{\beta,\alpha}$, where $L_{n}(i,j)$ counts monotonic pieces of $f_{\beta,\alpha}^{n}$ whose image is $[f^{i}(0),f^{j}(1^{-}))$. We show that $N_{\beta,\alpha}=1$ whenever $\beta>2$. Finally, we give the criterion that $N_{\beta,\alpha}=1$ if and only if for all $n\ge 1$ the map $f_{\beta,\alpha}^{n}$ is ergodic with respect to the maximal entropy measure of $f_{\beta,\alpha}$.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
1997 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)