An element g of an abstract group G is a distortion element if there exists a finite family S in G such that g belongs to the subgroup generated by S and the wordlength of gn (w.r.t. S) grows sublinearly in n. In this talk, we will be interested in the distortion elements of the group of Cr orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of the closed interval, for different values of r. In particular, we will present some natural obstructions to distortion (such that the presence of hyperbolic fixed points in C1 regularity and the positivity of the so-called asymptotic distortion in C2 regularity (and higher)), and we will wonder whether they are the only ones.[-]

Studying the (closure of the) (semi-)conjugacy class of a given group action on a 1-manifold is interesting from many points of view. Depending on the manifold and/or the differentiability involved, one is faced with problems concerning small denominators, growth of groups / orbits, distortion elements, bounded cohomology, group orderability, etc. In this minicourse we will explore several general results on this topic such as the $C^1$ smoothing via (semi-)conjugacies of small group actions and obstructions in class $C^2$ and higher. We will also explore some of the ideas involved in the proof of the connectedness of the space of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ actions by diffeomorphisms of $C^{1+ac}$ regularity (obtained in collaboration with H. Eynard-Bontemps).[-]

Studying the (closure of the) (semi-)conjugacy class of a given group action on a 1-manifold is interesting from many points of view. Depending on the manifold and/or the differentiability involved, one is faced with problems concerning small denominators, growth of groups / orbits, distortion elements, bounded cohomology, group orderability, etc. In this minicourse we will explore several general results on this topic such as the $C^1$ smoothing via (semi-)conjugacies of small group actions and obstructions in class $C^2$ and higher. We will also explore some of the ideas involved in the proof of the connectedness of the space of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ actions by diffeomorphisms of $C^{1+ac}$ regularity (obtained in collaboration with H. Eynard-Bontemps).[-]

Studying the (closure of the) (semi-)conjugacy class of a given group action on a 1-manifold is interesting from many points of view. Depending on the manifold and/or the differentiability involved, one is faced with problems concerning small denominators, growth of groups / orbits, distortion elements, bounded cohomology, group orderability, etc. In this minicourse we will explore several general results on this topic such as the $C^1$ smoothing via (semi-)conjugacies of small group actions and obstructions in class $C^2$ and higher. We will also explore some of the ideas involved in the proof of the connectedness of the space of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ actions by diffeomorphisms of $C^{1+ac}$ regularity (obtained in collaboration with H. Eynard-Bontemps).[-]

We consider infinite interval exchange transformations (IETs) obtained as a composition of a finite IET and the von Neumann-Kakutani map, called rotated odometers, and study their dynamical and ergodic properties by means of an associated Bratteli-Vershik system. We show that every rotated odometer is measurably isomorphic to the first return map of a rational parallel flow on a translation surface of finite area with infinite genus and a finite number of ends, with respect to the Lebesgue measure. This is one motivation for the study of rotated odometers. We also prove a few results about the factors of the unique minimal subsystem of a rotated odometer. This is joint work with Henk Bruin.[-]

The study of the path-connectedness of the space of $C^{r}$ actions of $\mathbb{Z}^{2}$ on the interval [0,1] plays an important role in the classification of codimension 1 foliations on 3 manifolds. One way to deform actions is by conjugation. If an action can be brought arbitrarily close to the trivial one by conjugation, it is said to be quasi-reducible. In this talk, we will present and compare obstructions to quasi-reducibility in different regularity classes, and draw conclusions concerning the initial connectedness problem.[-]

​An almost Anosov flow is a flow having continuous flow-invariant splitting of the tangent bundle with exponential expansion/contraction in the unstable/stable direction, except for a finite number (in our case a single) periodic orbits. Roughly, almost Anosov flows are perturbed Anosov flows, where the perturbation is local around these periodic orbits, making them neutral. For this type of flows, we obtain limit theorems (stable, standard and non-standard CLT) for a large class of (unbounded) observables. I will present these results stressing on the method of proof. This is joint work with H. Bruin and M. Todd.[-]

​Consider the map $(x, z) \mapsto (x + \epsilon^{-\alpha} \sin (2\pi x) + \epsilon^{-(1+\alpha)}z, z + \epsilon \sin(2\pi x))$, which is conjugate to the Chirikov standard map with a large parameter. For suitable $\alpha$, we obtain a central limit theorem for the slow variable $z$ for a (Lebesgue) random initial condition. The result is proved by conjugating to the Chirikov standard map and utilizing the formalism of standard pairs. Our techniques also yield for the Chirikov standard map a related limit theorem and a ''finite-time'' decay of correlations result.
This is joint work with Alex Blumenthal and Ke Zhang.[-]

We consider quasi-compact linear operator cocycles driven by an invertible ergodic process and small perturbations of this cocycle. We prove an abstract pathwise first-order formula for the leading Lyapunov multipliers. This result does not rely on random driving and applies also to sequential dynamics. We then consider the situation where the linear operator cocycle is a weighted transfer operator cocycle induced by a random map cocycle. The perturbed transfer operators are defined by the introduction of small random holes, creating a random open dynamical system. We obtain a first-order perturbation formula for the Lyapunov multipliers in this setting. Our new machinery is then deployed to create a spectral approach for a quenched extreme value theory that considers random dynamics with general ergodic invertible driving, and random observations. Further, in the setting of random piecewise expanding interval maps, we establish the existence of random equilibrium states and conditionally invariant measures for random open systems via a random perturbative approach. Finally we prove quenched statistical limit theorems for random equilibrium states arising from contracting potentials. We will illustrate the theory with some explicit examples.[-]