Combinatorial Dynamics and Entropy in Dimension One

This book introduces the reader to the two main directions of one-dimensional dynamics. The first has its roots in the Sharkovskii theorem, which describes the possible sets of periods of all cycles (periodic orbits) of a continuous map of an interval into itself. The whole theory, which was developed based on this theorem, deals mainly with combinatorial objects, permutations, graphs, etc.; it is called combinatorial dynamics. The second direction has its main objective in measuring the complexity of a system, or the degree of “chaos” present in it; for that the topological entropy is used. The book analyzes the combinatorial dynamics and topological entropy for the continuous maps of either an interval or the circle into itself.