Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.747963
Title: Growth and integrability in multi-valued dynamics
Author: Spalding, Kathryn
ISNI:       0000 0004 7232 8507
Awarding Body: Loughborough University
Current Institution: Loughborough University
Date of Award: 2018
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Abstract:
This thesis is focused on the problem of growth and integrability in multi-valued dynamics generated by $SL_2 (\mathbb{Z})$ actions. An important example is given by Markov dynamics on the cubic surface $$x^2+ y^2 +z^2 = 3xyz,$$ generating all the integer solutions of this celebrated Diophantine equation, known as Markov triples. To study the growth problem of Markov numbers we use the binary tree representation. This allows us to define the Lyapunov exponents $\Lambda (x)$ as the function of the paths on this tree, labelled by $x \in \mathbb{R}P^1$. We prove that $\Lambda (x)$ is a $PGL_2 (\mathbb{Z})$-invariant function, which is zero almost everywhere but takes all values in $\left[ 0, \ln \varphi \right]$ (where $\varphi$ denotes the golden ratio). We also show that this function is monotonic, and that its restriction to the Markov-Hurwitz set of most irrational numbers is convex in the Farey parametrisation. We also study the growth problem for integer binary quadratic forms using Conway's topograph representation. It is proven that the corresponding Lyapunov exponent $\Lambda_Q(x) = 2 \Lambda(x)$ except for the paths along the Conway river. Finally, we study the tropical version of the Markov dynamics on the tropical version of the Cayley cubic proposed by Adler and Veselov, and show that it is semi-conjugated to the standard action of $SL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ on a torus. This implies the dynamics is ergodic, with the Lyapunov exponent and entropy given by the logarithm of the spectral radius of the corresponding matrix.
Supervisor: Not available Sponsor: EPSRC
Qualification Name: Thesis (Ph.D.) Qualification Level: Doctoral
EThOS ID: uk.bl.ethos.747963  DOI: Not available
Keywords: Lyapunov exponents ; Modular group ; Continued fractions ; Markov numbers ; Binary forms
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