Glendinning chaos Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A continuous interval map is chaotic in Glendinning's sense when some positive iterate has a horseshoe for an interval map.
Horseshoe from two closed covering walks Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
If a directed covering graph of an interval map has two distinct closed walks of the same length , based at the same interval and with different first edges, successive use of the interval covering relation produces two subintervals with disjoint interiors that maps across the base interval. Hence has a horseshoe for an interval map.
A horseshoe for an interval map consists of two branches covering a common interval: there are an open interval and disjoint open subintervals with . Equivalently one can work with two closed intervals with disjoint interiors whose images cover their union, and then restrict the branches. Glendinning chaos means that some positive iterate has such a horseshoe, rather than requiring one for itself.
For the three-cycle, use the intermediate value theorem on endpoint images. The interval covering relations are and . Consequently both and cover . This proves has a horseshoe. The directed covering graph of an interval map has exactly these forced arrows; a closed walk has length three and a primitive itinerary. Pulling back the intervals successively and using the fixed-point property produces a point fixed by with this itinerary. It cannot be fixed by , and a shared endpoint belongs to the already given three-cycle, so a genuine period-three orbit results.
For the increasing spatial order of the five-cycle, let , . The forced graph is
The primitive loops , , , and force exact periods . For periods below five the known five-cycle endpoints cannot be responsible, so the interval itineraries give distinct interior orbits. Both and cover , so is guaranteed to be Glendinning-chaotic.
A horseshoe for itself is not guaranteed. As a counterexample put on and interpolate by for , for . This has the required five-cycle. The unique fixed point is , with to its left and to its right. Any nondegenerate closed interval whose image covers itself must contain this fixed point in its interior: an interval entirely on either side, or with the fixed point as an endpoint, fails to cover its extreme endpoint. Two intervals with disjoint interiors therefore cannot both cover themselves, as a horseshoe would require. Hence this example has no one-iterate horseshoe.
For the alternative spatial order, set and . Endpoint images give
The self-loop at , the two-cycle , and the four-cycle force ; period three is not guaranteed. To see this last claim, take the connect-the-dots map at with values . Its exact interval transitions are those displayed. Any length-three closed itinerary is the repeated self-loop in ; there the map is the affine decreasing function , whose third iterate has only its original fixed point. Endpoints belong to the five-cycle. Thus no exact three-cycle exists in this example.
Chaos is still guaranteed: from there are two different length-four closed walks, four self-loops and . Pullbacks give disjoint branches of over a common interval in , hence a horseshoe for an interval map for an iterate. A horseshoe for itself is again not guaranteed: the same connect-the-dots example is strictly decreasing on and increasing on with image . Its unique fixed point is , again with to the left and to the right. The same fixed-point argument rules out two self-covering intervals with disjoint interiors. These counterexamples distinguish the three separate questions about periods, chaos and a one-iterate horseshoe.
An interval map has a horseshoe for an interval map when two disjoint subintervals are each mapped across a common interval. It is Glendinning-chaotic when one of its positive iterates has such a horseshoe.
Let the points of the three-cycle be and put , . There are two possible cyclic orders. If , the intermediate value theorem gives
for the interval covering relation. Thus there are two closed covering walks of length two based at . In the reverse cyclic order there are instead the arrows , and , again giving two closed walks of length two. The horseshoe from two closed covering walks therefore shows that has a horseshoe in either case, so is chaotic.
The Sharkovsky theorem orders the positive integers as
and says that a cycle of a given period forces cycles of every period to its right.
Suppose with odd. Then has a -cycle. The Sharkovsky theorem gives that map a six-cycle, and squaring it produces a three-cycle. Hence has a three-cycle and an iterate of has a horseshoe. Thus
A horseshoe contains the symbolic dynamics of the Bernoulli shift. Periodic binary words give cycles of every symbolic period; after translating from an iterate back to , this supplies cycles of many periods that are not powers of two.
For the logistic map, a ten-cycle would imply chaos because is not a power of two. Hence there is no ten-cycle for . A three-cycle forces every period, so a ten-cycle exists for . The stated facts alone give no conclusion for the intermediate range:
A map is Devaney-chaotic on when it is topologically transitive, it has dense periodic points in , and it has sensitive dependence on initial conditions. A one-dimensional map is Glendinning-chaotic when some iterate has a horseshoe for an interval map: there are an interval and two disjoint subintervals such that .
The map is the beta transformation with slope . On every interval of continuity of , it is affine with slope . The endpoints of these intervals are iterated preimages of the discontinuity set. Choosing with , the standard full-branch lemma for the beta transformation supplies two disjoint continuity intervals on which maps bijectively onto . Thus has a horseshoe, proving Glendinning chaos.
For Devaney chaos one may either use the standard theorem that a full-branch expanding interval map is Devaney-chaotic, or verify its ingredients directly. Every nonempty open interval expands by the factor on each uninterrupted iterate; after subdivision at preimages of discontinuities, one of its images contains a full branch and hence eventually covers . This proves topological transitivity. Applying an inverse branch of a sufficiently high iterate to a full branch gives a contraction whose unique fixed point is periodic; choosing the branch inside any prescribed open interval proves that periodic points are dense. Finally, two sufficiently close points that follow the same branch separate by the factor on each iterate until their distance exceeds a fixed positive constant, proving sensitive dependence. Hence is also Devaney-chaotic for every real .
An interval map has a horseshoe when there are an open interval and two disjoint open intervals such that
For , all orbits converge to one fixed point, and for every orbit is eventually fixed or period two, so no iterate has a horseshoe. For the symmetric tent map with slope magnitude , the topological entropy is . The interval-map positive-entropy horseshoe theorem says that a continuous interval map has positive topological entropy exactly when some iterate has a horseshoe. Hence
For this already follows from part (iii); for , a higher iterate supplies the horseshoe.
An interval map has a horseshoe if there are two closed subintervals with disjoint interiors such that
It is chaotic in Glendinning's sense if some positive iterate has a horseshoe.
Suppose are the points of a 3-cycle and put , . There are two possible cyclic orders. If
then the intermediate value theorem gives
Consequently both and contain . If instead
then
and again both second images contain . Thus in either cyclic order has a horseshoe.