A continuous interval map has positive topological entropy if and only if some positive iterate has a horseshoe for an interval map.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 4 32E b iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
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. HenceFor this already follows from part (iii); for , a higher iterate supplies the horseshoe.