Denjoy's theorem on rotation number

In mathematics, Denjoy theorem gives a sufficient condition for a diffeomorphism of the circle to be topologically conjugate to a diffeomorphism of a special kind, namely an irrational rotation. The theorem was proved by Arnaud Denjoy in the course of his topological classification of homeomorphisms of the circle. He also gave an example of a C¹ diffeomorphism with an irrational rotation number which is not conjugate to a rotation.

Statement of the theorem

Let f: S¹ → S¹ be an orientation-preserving diffeomorphism of the circle whose rotation number θ = ρ(f) is irrational. Assume that it has positive derivative f^′(x) > 0 which is a continuous function with bounded variation on the interval [0,1). Then f is topologically conjugate to the irrational rotation by θ. Moreover, every orbit is dense and every nontrivial interval I of the circle intersects its forward image f°^q(I), for some q > 0 (this means that the non-wandering set of f is the whole circle).

Complements

If f is a C² map then the hypothesis on the derivative holds; however, Denjoy constructed an example that showing this condition cannot be relaxed to C¹, continuous differentiability of f, for any irrational rotation rotation number.

Vladimir Arnold showed that the conjugating map need not be smooth, even for an analytic diffeomorphism of the circle. Later Michel Herman proved that nonetheless, the conjugating map of an analytic diffeomorphism is itself analytic for "most" rotation numbers, forming a set of full Lebesgue measure, namely, for those which are badly approximable by rational numbers.

See also

• Circle map

References

• M.R. Herman, Sur la conjugaison différentiable des difféomorphismes du cercle à des rotations, Publ. Math. IHES, 49 (1979) pp. 5–234

• Kornfeld, Sinai, Fomin, Ergodic theory.

External links

• John Milnor, Denjoy Theorem