English

A curious dynamical system in the plane

Dynamical Systems 2024-11-14 v2

Abstract

For any irrational α>0\alpha > 0 and any initial value z1Cz_{-1} \in \mathbb{C}, we define a sequence of complex numbers (zn)n=0(z_n)_{n=0}^{\infty} as follows: znz_n is zn1+e2πiαnz_{n-1} + e^{2 \pi i \alpha n} or zn1e2πiαnz_{n-1} - e^{2 \pi i \alpha n}, whichever has the smaller absolute value. If both numbers have the same absolute value, the sequence terminates at zn1z_{n-1} but this happens rarely. This dynamical system has astonishingly intricate behavior: the choice of signs in zn1±e2πiαnz_{n-1} \pm e^{2 \pi i \alpha n} appears to eventually become periodic (though the period can be large). We prove that if one observes periodic signs for a sufficiently long time (depending on z1,αz_{-1}, \alpha), the signs remain periodic for all time. The surprising complexity of the system is illustrated through examples.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.08961,
  title  = {A curious dynamical system in the plane},
  author = {Stefan Steinerberger and Tony Zeng},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.08961},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

19 pages, 9 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:43:56.674Z