Renormalizable two-parameter piecewise isometries.

Abstract

We exhibit two distinct renormalization scenarios for two-parameter piecewise isometries, based on 2π/5 rotations of a rhombus and parameter-dependent translations. Both scenarios rely on the recently established renormalizability of a one-parameter triangle map, which takes place if and only if the parameter belongs to the algebraic number field K=Q(5) associated with the rotation matrix. With two parameters, features emerge which have no counterpart in the single-parameter model. In the first scenario, we show that renormalizability is no longer rigid: whereas one of the two parameters is restricted to K, the second parameter can vary continuously over a real interval without destroying self-similarity. The mechanism involves neighbouring atoms which recombine after traversing distinct return paths. We show that this phenomenon also occurs in the simpler context of Rauzy-Veech renormalization of interval exchange transformations, here regarded as parametric piecewise isometries on a real interval. We explore this analogy in some detail. In the second scenario, which involves two-parameter deformations of a three-parameter rhombus map, we exhibit a weak form of rigidity. The phase space splits into several (non-convex) invariant components, on each of which the renormalization still has a free parameter. However, the foliations of the different components are transversal in parameter space; as a result, simultaneous self-similarity of the component maps requires that both of the original parameters belong to the field K.