A Birkhoff billiard is a system describing the inertial motion of a point mass inside a strictly convex planar domain, with elastic reflections at the boundary. The study of the associated dynamics is profoundly intertwined with the geometric properties of the domain: while it is evident how the shape determines the dynamics, a more subtle and difficult question is the extent to which the knowledge of the dynamics allows one to reconstruct the shape of the domain. This translates into many intriguing inverse problems and unanswered rigidity questions, which have been the focus of very active research in recent decades. In this paper we describe some of these questions, along with their connection to other problems in analysis and geometry, with particular emphasis on recent results obtained by the authors and their collaborators.

We study a mathematical model proposed in the literature with the aim of describing the interactions between tumor cells and the immune system, when a periodic treatment of immunotherapy is applied. Combining some techniques from non-linear analysis (degree theory, lower and upper solutions, and theory of free-homeomorphisms in the plane), we give a detailed global analysis of the model. We also observe that for certain therapies, the maximum level of aggressiveness of a cancer, for which the treatment works (or does not work), can be computed explicitly. We discuss some strategies for designing therapies. The mathematical analysis is completed with numerical results and conclusions.

We develop a thermodynamic formalism for a smooth realization of pseudo-Anosov surface homeomorphisms. In this realization, the singularities of the pseudo-Anosov map are assumed to be fixed, and the trajectories are slowed down so the differential is the identity at these points. Using Young towers, we prove existence and uniqueness of equilibrium states for geometric t-potentials. This family of equilibrium states includes a unique SRB measure and a measure of maximal entropy, the latter of which has exponential decay of correlations and the central limit theorem.

For a continuous function $f:[0,1] \to [0,1]$ we define a splitting sequence admitted by f and show that the inverse limit of f is an arc if and only if f does not admit a splitting sequence.

We show that $C^r $ generically in the space of $C^r$ conservative diffeomorphisms of a compact surface, every hyperbolic periodic point has a transverse homoclinic orbit.

Given a closed, orientable, compact surface S of constant negative curvature and genus $g \geq 2$, we study the measure-theoretic entropy of the Bowen–Series boundary map with respect to its smooth invariant measure. We obtain an explicit formula for the entropy that only depends on the perimeter of the $(8g-4)$-sided fundamental polygon of the surface S and its genus. Using this, we analyze how the entropy changes in the Teichmüller space of S and prove the following flexibility result: the measure-theoretic entropy takes all values between 0 and a maximum that is achieved on the surface that admits a regular $(8g-4)$-sided fundamental polygon. We also compare the measure-theoretic entropy to the topological entropy of these maps and show that the smooth invariant measure is not a measure of maximal entropy.

We define a family $\mathcal {B}(t)$ of compact subsets of the unit interval which provides a filtration of the set of numbers whose continued fraction expansion has bounded digits. We study how the set $\mathcal {B}(t)$ changes as the parameter t ranges in $[0,1]$, and see that the family undergoes period-doubling bifurcations and displays the same transition pattern from periodic to chaotic behaviour as the family of real quadratic polynomials. The set $\mathcal {E}$ of bifurcation parameters is a fractal set of measure zero and Hausdorff dimension $1$. The Hausdorff dimension of $\mathcal {B}(t)$ varies continuously with the parameter, and we show that the dimension of each individual set equals the dimension of the corresponding section of the bifurcation set $\mathcal {E}$.

We characterize dendrites D such that a continuous selfmap of D is generically chaotic (in the sense of Lasota) if and only if it is generically ${\varepsilon }$-chaotic for some ${\varepsilon }>0$. In other words, we characterize dendrites on which generic chaos of a continuous map can be described in terms of the behaviour of subdendrites with non-empty interiors under iterates of the map. A dendrite D belongs to this class if and only if it is completely regular, with all points of finite order (that is, if and only if D contains neither a copy of the Riemann dendrite nor a copy of the $\omega $-star).

We prove that, if f is a homeomorphism of the 2-torus isotopic to the identity whose rotation set is a non-degenerate segment and f has a periodic point, then it has uniformly bounded deviations in the direction perpendicular to the segment.

Let $(X,T)$ be a topological dynamical system. Given a continuous vector-valued function $F \in C(X, \mathbb {R}^{d})$ called a potential, we define its rotation set $R(F)$ as the set of integrals of F with respect to all T-invariant probability measures, which is a convex body of $\mathbb {R}^{d}$. In this paper we study the geometry of rotation sets. We prove that if T is a non-uniquely ergodic topological dynamical system with a dense set of periodic measures, then the map $R(\cdot )$ is open with respect to the uniform topologies. As a consequence, we obtain that the rotation set of a generic potential is strictly convex and has $C^{1}$ boundary. Furthermore, we prove that the map $R(\cdot )$ is surjective, extending a result of Kucherenko and Wolf.

For random piecewise linear systems T of the interval that are expanding on average we construct explicitly the density functions of absolutely continuous T-invariant measures. If the random system uses only expanding maps our procedure produces all invariant densities of the system. Examples include random tent maps, random W-shaped maps, random $\beta $-transformations and random Lüroth maps with a hole.

This paper considers self-conformal iterated function systems (IFSs) on the real line whose first level cylinders overlap. In the space of self-conformal IFSs, we show that generically (in topological sense) if the attractor of such a system has Hausdorff dimension less than 1 then it has zero appropriate dimensional Hausdorff measure and its Assouad dimension is equal to 1. Our main contribution is in showing that if the cylinders intersect then the IFS generically does not satisfy the weak separation property and hence, we may apply a recent result of Angelevska, Käenmäki and Troscheit. This phenomenon holds for transversal families (in particular for the translation family) typically, in the self-similar case, in both topological and in measure theoretical sense, and in the more general self-conformal case in the topological sense.

The purpose of this article is to study the relation between combinatorial equivalence and topological conjugacy, specifically how a certain type of combinatorial equivalence implies topological conjugacy. We introduce the concept of kneading sequences for a setting that is more general than one-dimensional dynamics: for the two-dimensional toy model family of Hénon maps introduced by Benedicks and Carleson, we define kneading sequences for their critical lines, and prove that these sequences are a complete invariant for a natural conjugacy class among the toy model family. We also establish a version of Singer’s theorem for the toy model family.

We provide a complete characterization of periodic point free homeomorphisms of the $2$-torus admitting irrational circle rotations as topological factors. Given a homeomorphism of the $2$-torus without periodic points and exhibiting uniformly bounded rotational deviations with respect to a rational direction, we show that annularity and the geometry of its non-wandering set are the only possible obstructions for the existence of an irrational circle rotation as topological factor. Through a very precise study of the dynamics of the induced $\rho $-centralized skew-product, we extend and generalize considerably previous results of Jäger.

A diffeomorphism of the plane is Anosov if it has a hyperbolic splitting at every point of the plane. In addition to linear hyperbolic automorphisms, translations of the plane also carry an Anosov structure (the existence of Anosov structures for plane translations was originally shown by White). Mendes conjectured that these are the only topological conjugacy classes for Anosov diffeomorphisms in the plane. Very recently, Matsumoto gave an example of an Anosov diffeomorphism of the plane, which is a Brouwer translation but not topologically conjugate to a translation, disproving Mendes’ conjecture. In this paper we prove that Mendes’ claim holds when the Anosov diffeomorphism is the time-one map of a flow, via a theorem about foliations invariant under a time-one map. In particular, this shows that the kind of counterexample constructed by Matsumoto cannot be obtained from a flow on the plane.

We study the rotation sets for homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity on the torus $\mathbb T^d$, $d\ge 2$. In the conservative setting, we prove that there exists a Baire residual subset of the set $\text {Homeo}_{0, \lambda }(\mathbb T^2)$ of conservative homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity so that the set of points with wild pointwise rotation set is a Baire residual subset in $\mathbb T^2$, and that it carries full topological pressure and full metric mean dimension. Moreover, we prove that for every $d\ge 2$ the rotation set of $C^0$-generic conservative homeomorphisms on $\mathbb T^d$ is convex. Related results are obtained in the case of dissipative homeomorphisms on tori. The previous results rely on the description of the topological complexity of the set of points with wild historic behavior and on the denseness of periodic measures for continuous maps with the gluing orbit property.

Let f be a germ of a holomorphic diffeomorphism with an irrationally indifferent fixed point at the origin in ${\mathbb C}$ (i.e. $f(0) = 0, f'(0) = e^{2\pi i \alpha }, \alpha \in {\mathbb R} - {\mathbb Q}$). Pérez-Marco [Fixed points and circle maps. Acta Math. 179(2) (1997), 243–294] showed the existence of a unique continuous monotone one-parameter family of non-trivial invariant full continua containing the fixed point called Siegel compacta, and gave a correspondence between germs and families $(g_t)$ of circle maps obtained by conformally mapping the complement of these compacts to the complement of the unit disk. The family of circle maps $(g_t)$ is the orbit of a locally defined semigroup $(\Phi _t)$ on the space of analytic circle maps, which we show has a well-defined infinitesimal generator X. The explicit form of X is obtained by using the Loewner equation associated to the family of hulls $(K_t)$. We show that the Loewner measures $(\mu _t)$ driving the equation are 2-conformal measures on the circle for the circle maps $(g_t)$.

We describe topological obstructions (involving periodic points, topological entropy and rotation sets) for a homeomorphism on a compact manifold to embed in a continuous flow. We prove that homeomorphisms in a $C^{0}$-open and dense set of homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity in compact manifolds of dimension at least two are not the time-1 map of a continuous flow. Such property is also true for volume-preserving homeomorphisms in compact manifolds of dimension at least five. In the case of conservative homeomorphisms of the torus $\mathbb {T}^{d} (d\ge 2)$ isotopic to identity, we describe necessary conditions for a homeomorphism to be flowable in terms of the rotation sets.

Consider an intermittent map $f_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}}:[0,1]\rightarrow [0,1]$ and a Hölder continuous potential $\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}:[0,1]\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$. We show that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ is stochastic for $f_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}}$ if and only if the topological pressure $P(f_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}},\unicode[STIX]{x1D711})$ satisfies $P(f_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}},\unicode[STIX]{x1D711})-\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}(0)>0$. As a consequence, for each $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}>0$ sufficiently small, the set of Hölder continuous potentials of exponent $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ that are not stochastic for $f_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}}$ has nonempty interior in the space of all such potentials.

Let $\operatorname{Homeo}_{+}(D_{n}^{2})$ be the group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of $D^{2}$ fixing the boundary pointwise and $n$ marked points as a set. The Nielsen realization problem for the braid group asks whether the natural projection $p_{n}:\operatorname{Homeo}_{+}(D_{n}^{2})\rightarrow B_{n}:=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}_{0}(\operatorname{Homeo}_{+}(D_{n}^{2}))$ has a section over subgroups of $B_{n}$ . All of the previous methods use either torsion or Thurston stability, which do not apply to the pure braid group $PB_{n}$ , the subgroup of $B_{n}$ that fixes $n$ marked points pointwise. In this paper, we show that the pure braid group has no realization inside the area-preserving homeomorphisms using rotation numbers.