. We define a notion of rank for words and subshifts that we call spacer rank, extending the notion of rank-one symbolic shifts of Gao and Hill. We construct infinite words of each finite spacer rank, of unbounded spacer rank, and show there exist words that do not have a spacer rank construction. We consider words that are fixed points of substitutions and give explicit conditions for the word to have an at most spacer rank two construction, and not to be rank one. We prove that finite spacer rank subshifts have topological entropy zero, and that there are zero entropy subshifts not defined by a word with a finite spacer rank construction. We also study shift systems associated with infinite words, including those associated to Sturmian sequences, which we show are spacer rank-two systems.

This survey is a 2022 update of the 2008 version, with recent developments and new references.

For a class of irrational numbers, depending on their Diophantine properties, we construct explicit rank-one transformations that are totally ergodic and not weakly mixing and classify when the measure is finite or infinite. In the finite case they are isomorphic to irrational rotations, giving explicit rank-one cutting and spacer parameters for these irrational rotations. In the infinite case we use the constructions to provide examples of non-weakly mixing infinite measure-preserving ergodic transformations which do not have any nontrivial probability preserving factors with discrete spectrum, thereby contributing to the program of Aaronson and Nadkarni and a question of Glasner and Weiss. We also obtain nonsingular versions of these examples for each Krieger ration set.

In this paper we give explicit characterizations, based on the cutting and spacer parameters, of (a) which rank-one transformations factor onto a given finite cyclic permutation, (b) which rank-one transformations factor onto a given odometer, and (c) which rank-one transformations are isomorphic to a given odometer. These naturally yield characterizations of (d) which rank-one transformations factor onto some (unspecified) finite cyclic permutation, (d′) which rank-one transformations are totally ergodic, (e) which rank-one transformations factor onto some (unspecified) odometer, and (f) which rank-one transformations are isomorphic to some (unspecified) odometer.

We study two properties of nonsingular and infinite measure-preserving ergodic systems: weak double ergodicity, and ergodicity with isometric coefficients. We show that there exist infinite measure-preserving transformations that are ergodic with isometric coefficients but are not weakly doubly ergodic; hence these two notions are not equivalent for infinite measure. We also give type IIIλ examples of such systems, for 0<λ≤1. We prove that under certain hypotheses, systems that are weakly mixing are ergodic with isometric coefficients and along the way we give an example of a uniformly rigid topological dynamical system along the sequence (ni) that is not measure theoretically rigid along (ni) for any nonsingular ergodic finite measure.

We prove that Sarnak's conjecture holds for any infinite measure symbolic rank-one map. We further extended Bourgain-Sarnak's result, which says that the Möbius function is a good weight for the ergodic theorem, to maps acting on σ-finite measure spaces. We also discuss and extend Bourgain's theorem by establishing that there is a class of maps for which the Möbius disjointness property holds for any continuous bounded function. Our proof allows us to obtain an extension of Bourgain's theorem on Möbius disjointness for bounded rank one maps and a simple and self-contained proof of this fact.

This paper studies the notion of W-measurable sensitivity in the context of semigroup actions. W-measurable sensitivity is a measurable generalization of sensitive dependence on initial conditions. In 2012, Grigoriev et. al. proved a classification result of conservative ergodic dynamical systems that states all are either W-measurably sensitive or act by isometries with respect to some metric and have refined structure. We generalize this result to a class of semigroup actions. Furthermore, a counterexample is provided that shows W-measurable sensitivity is not preserved under factors. We also consider the restriction of W-measurably sensitive semigroup actions to sub-semigroups and show that the restriction remains W-measurably sensitive when the sub-semigroup is large enough (e.g. when the sub-semigroups are syndetic or thick).

We study rank-two symbolic systems (as topological dynamical systems) and prove that the Thue-Morse sequence and quadratic Sturmian sequences are rank-two and define rank-two symbolic systems.

We define rank-two and higher rank words and symbolic shifts, extending the notion of rank-one symbolic shifts of Gao and Hill. We construct infinite words of each finite rank, of infinite rank, and show there exist unranked words. We consider words generated by substitution schemes and give explicit conditions for the word to be at most rank-two and not rank-one. We also study shift systems associated with infinite words, including those associated to Sturmian sequences, which we show are rank-two.

The main contributions of [Stat. Optim. Inf. Comput. Vol. 7, No. 3 (2019)], consisting of 7 papers selected and revised from the 2nd Portuguese Meeting in Biomathematics (EPB’2018), are highlighted.

We define an infinite measure-preserving transformation to have infinite symmetric ergodic index if all finite Cartesian products of the transformation and its inverse are ergodic, and show that infinite symmetric ergodic index does not imply that all products of powers are conservative, so does not imply power weak mixing. We provide a sufficient condition for $k$-fold and infinite symmetric ergodic index and use it to answer a question on the relationship between product conservativity and product ergodicity. We also show that a class of rank-one transformations that have infinite symmetric ergodic index are not power weakly mixing, and precisely characterize a class of power weak transformations that generalizes existing examples.

We prove that for infinite rank-one transformations satisfying a property called “partial boundedness,” the only commuting transformations are powers of the original transformation. This shows that a large class of infinite measure-preserving rank-one transformations with bounded cuts have trivial centralizers. We also characterize when partially bounded transformations are isomorphic to their inverse.

We prove that for infinite rank-one transformations satisfying a property called “partial boundedness,” the only commuting transformations are powers of the original transformation. This shows that a large class of infinite measure-preserving rank-one transformations with bounded cuts have trivial centralizers. We also characterize when partially bounded transformations are isomorphic to their inverse.

The conservative sequence of a set $A$ under a transformation $T$ is the set of all $n \in \mathbb{Z}$ such that $T^n A \cap A \not = \varnothing$. By studying these sequences, we prove that given any countable collection of nonsingular transformations with no finite invariant measure $\{T_i\}$, there exists a rank-one transformation $S$ such that $T_i \times S$ is not ergodic for all $i$. Moreover, $S$ can be chosen to be rigid or have infinite ergodic index. We establish similar results for $\mathbb{Z}^d$ actions and flows. Then, we find sufficient conditions on rank-one transformations $T$ that guarantee the existence of a rank-one transformation $S$ such that $T \times S$ is ergodic, or, alternatively, conditions that guarantee that $T \times S$ is conservative but not ergodic. In particular, the infinite Chac\'on transformation satisfies both conditions. Finally, for a given ergodic transformation $T$, we study the Baire categories of the sets $E(T)$, $\bar{E}C(T)$ and $\bar{C}(T)$ of transformations $S$ such that $T \times S$ is ergodic, ergodic but not conservative, and conservative, respectively.

We give a short proof, that can be used in an introductory real analysis course, that if a function that is defined on the set of real numbers is continuous on a countable dense set, then it is continuous on an uncountable set. This is done for functions defined on complete metric spaces without isolated points, and the argument only uses that Cauchy sequences converge, and we prove the version related to Volterra's theorem. We discuss how this theorem is a direct consequence of the Baire category theorem, and also discuss Volterra's theorem and the history of this problem. We conclude with a simple example, for each complete metric space without isolated points and each set that is a countable union of closed subsets, of a real-valued function that is discontinuous only on that set.

We give examples of rank-one transformations that are (weak) doubly ergodic and rigid (so all their cartesian products are conservative), but with non-ergodic $2$-fold cartesian product. We give conditions for rank-one infinite measure-preserving transformations to be (weak) doubly ergodic and for their $k$-fold cartesian product to be conservative. We also show that a (weak) doubly ergodic nonsingular group action is ergodic with isometric coefficients, and that the latter strictly implies W measurable sensitivity.

One of the greatest difficulties encountered by all in their first proof intensive class is subtly assuming an unproven fact in a proof. The purpose of this note is to describe a specific instance where this can occur, namely in results related to unique factorization and the concept of the greatest common divisor.

Measurable dynamical systems are defined on a measure space, such as the unit interval or the real line, with a transformation or map acting on the space. After discussing dynamical properties for probability spaces such as ergodicity, weak mixing, and mixing, we consider analogs of mixing and weak mixing in infinite measure, and present related examples and definitions that are the result of research with undergraduates. Rank-one transformations are introduced and used to construct the main examples.