Past exam of the nonlinear systems course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 3 / a / ii

The space $\Sigma$ of all infinite binary sequences is uncountable by the Cantor diagonal argument: given any list $s^{(1)},s^{(2)},\dots$, the sequence $t_i=1-s_i^{(i)}$ differs from its $i$th entry at position $i$, so it is absent from the list. Part (i) shows that only countably many sequences are periodic. Their complement is therefore uncountable.

Each forward orbit $\{{\sigma }^n(s):n\ge 0\}$ is countable. If there were only countably many nonperiodic forward orbits, their union together with the periodic points would be countable, contradicting the preceding argument. Hence there are uncountably many nonperiodic orbits, rather than merely uncountably many nonperiodic starting points.

One can also exclude eventual periodicity. An eventually periodic sequence is specified by a finite initial word and a finite repeating word, so only countably many exist. Removing all of them still leaves an uncountable set. This proves the assertion even if “nonperiodic” is understood to exclude orbits that eventually enter a periodic orbit.