02-148 Kouptsov K. L., Lowenstein J. H, Vivaldi F.
Quadratic rational rotations of the torus and dual lattice maps (2556K, zipped postscript) Mar 26, 02
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Abstract. We develop a general formalism for computed-assisted proofs concerning the orbit structure of certain non ergodic piecewise affine maps of the torus, whose eigenvalues are roots of unity. For a specific class of maps, we prove that if the trace is a quadratic irrational (the simplest nontrivial case, comprising 8 maps), then the periodic orbits are organized into finitely many renormalizable families, with exponentially increasing period, plus a finite number of exceptional families. The proof is based on exact computations with algebraic numbers, where units play the role of scaling parameters. Exploiting a duality existing between these maps and lattice maps representing rounded-off planar rotations, we establish the global periodicity of the latter systems, for a set of orbits of full density.

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