Transitions and anti-integrable limits for multi-hole Sturmian systems and Denjoy counterexamples

Abstract

Abstract For a Denjoy homeomorphism $f$ of the circle $S$, we call a pair of distinct points of the $\omega$-limit set $\omega (\,f)$ whose forward and backward orbits converge together a gap, and call an orbit of gaps a hole. In this paper, we generalize the Sturmian system of Morse and Hedlund and show that the dynamics of any Denjoy minimal set of finite number of holes is conjugate to a generalized Sturmian system. Moreover, for any Denjoy homeomorphism $f$ having a finite number of holes and for any transitive orientation-preserving homeomorphism $f_1$ of the circle with the same rotation number $\rho (\,f_1)$ as $\rho (\,f)$, we construct a family $f_\varepsilon$ of Denjoy homeomorphisms of rotation number $\rho (\,f)$ containing $f$ such that $(\omega (\,f_\varepsilon ), f_\varepsilon )$ is conjugate to $(\omega (\,f), f)$ for $0<\varepsilon <\tilde{\varepsilon }<1$, but the number of holes changes at $\varepsilon =\tilde{\varepsilon }$, that $(\omega (\,f_\varepsilon ), f_\varepsilon )$ is conjugate to $(\omega (\,f_{\tilde{\varepsilon }}), f_{\tilde{\varepsilon }})$ for $\tilde{\varepsilon }\leqslant \varepsilon <1$ but $\lim _{\varepsilon \nearrow 1}f_\varepsilon (t)=f_1(t)$ for any $t\in S$, and that $f_\varepsilon$ has a singular limit when $\varepsilon \searrow 0$. We show this singular limit is an anti-integrable limit (AI-limit) in the sense of Aubry. That is, the Denjoy minimal system reduces to a symbolic dynamical system. The AI-limit can be degenerate or nondegenerate. All transitions can be precisely described in terms of the generalized Sturmian systems.