FUNCTORIAL REMARKS ON THE GENERAL CONCEPT OF CHAOS BY F.W. LAWVERE IMA Preprint Series # 87 duly 1984 INSTITUTE FOR MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 514 Vincent Hall 206 Church Street S.E. Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455,Functorial Remarks on the General Concept of Chaos By F. Willian Lawere Department of Nathenat ics SUNY at Buffalo Buffalo, New York 14222Functorial Remarks on the General Concept of Chaos F. W, Lawvere Although the term "chaos" is employed in various ways in current dynamics literature, several instances [2], [2] of « precise usace have in common two features of a categorical nature: surjectivity of an induceé map and richt adjointness in the inducing process. abstracting these features we propose a general definition and then note that there are examples which are rather different from the usual ones but which nonetheless have an intui- tively "chaotic" quality. Recall that a functor x= Y between two categories is said to have a right adjoint Yy H —1, *¥ if there are natural transformations 44-72 H Dy UH SG, dy which induce bijections 1 xXe= ee xX ——SHY between the indicated sets of Y-mocphisns and X-norphisns,for each X in X& ana yey. an important class of examples may be constructed as follows. Let y be a suitable category of topological or differentiable spaces, and let T be a monoid in y - Por example T could be the additive monoid of ngnnegative reals or of nonnecative integers. Define of: Hi , the category whose objects are objects of equipped with actions of T , morphisms are | -equivariant maps XG ac eee lie atin) [schon conpatative We will write the actions of T multiplicatively and on the right. Define U to be the "underlying space" functor which forgets the action As usual we will omit the symbol UT from the notation when it causes no confusion. Then LJ has a right adjoint given by, HCY) : val the internal function space (presumed to exist in y ) for each space ve in Yy . The adjot: ess is demonstratedin essence by the bijection \ CTA aaa Oma: Ve between arbitrary maps g§ and equivariant maps <7 de- fined by SO) SHON) ees FON Gan) anyeea Here § is equivariant if & is aiven and we have equipped Y with the usual action by "translation": (yt) (s)= y(ts) forall seT, yen thus if XX is a space equipped with a dynamical action of a and iA is a given space (without action) and if we then 5 ( F(x)is the function of time giving the procression of observed values of (Dif we start in state X ate time ©. this Gp is sometimes referred to as "symbolic dynamics", the points of Y being considered as synbols for the blocks into which Y divides the state space xX: then starting an state X , P(x)ic the T-reavence of blocks through which the dynamics takes the system.Koo Definition If xey, YeY + om obsegyabte, x asa is ] -chaotic iff the induced map Xf i. an epimorphism. More generally if 36 Sy is a functor with right adjoint NY ana UXey. @ is U-chactic ite X Zs HY) as an epinorphisn. That is (for those categories Yu in which epimozphisms are surjective] x2 is a chaotic observable iff every T-sequence of synbois T—#y Y is realized as y= Fe) for at least one state Xex. Refinements of this condition can be formulated by considering ¢ ain homo- morphisms “T—9 Tas periods and reauiring the sane condition after applying the correspondina chanae of action functors. A standard example of a map FP often considered in this context is the adjunction X— M% &)=¥ where This the "space of components” functor left adjoint to the inclusion YoCy Y os the category of prodiserete spaces. In case Y= (x}s actually finite and | is countable discrete, then H(yeY Tes a Cantor space. Finally, in acogrd with loose usage we may say that a system X in x=Y is “chaotic” in case there exists an Ee -subobject Kp (that is, a T-invariant subspace and a nontrivial space ‘Y and a chaotic K-} Y,or perhaps that T&) is nontrivial and x ie chaotic.The extent to which the above general categorical definition expresses the informal notion of chaos can be illustrated by an example of a dual alqebraic nature. Let Yy Q = the category of all commutative aloebras over the reals; for example the function ring CU fs an object of QQ for a manifola Y . tet 6 = Q! = she category of all such ereeeree equipped moreover with deri- vations AP pose is C)/is @ real-linear map satisfying the Leibniz een rule, where the morphisms of Q'axe algebra homomorphisms which moreover commute with the given derivations. Of course any vector field supplies an : example of an object in C2 . then the foractful functor qv Qa has the right adjoint H which assigns, to any alcebra A, the aa of all formal (divided) power series with coefficients in A , equipped with the obvious formal derivation ae The adjointness is verified as follows: If B is equipped with any given derivation and [R——> A is an algebra Si ALL] homomorphism, then Bss etiea y FOF) =H LOM) 4" where af face eee ene ean a given derivation on B , ana clearly FF as 2¢(f) i as required for Q-norphisms. Proposition: If B=C™() where K isa manifold, is equipped with the derivation induced by any given non-trivial vector field, then B nas a map & 2, which is chaotic relative to the adjunction May Proof: Let X be a point where the vector field is non- trivial and let 9O= f(x) for 11 FEB. then FF) is the Taylor series of f . Borel's theorem states that any element of H(R)- RE} the Taylor series at X of some smooth £ . Thus J is surjective, so that F is chaotic relative to Q- Q, accordina to our definition. Some other simple examples of right adjoints which may be of interest in this connection are determined by ' : starting with a homomorphism T-——9T of moncids in a special category an@ considering the induced-action functor Tp Le S es whose right adjoint {aenerali’ H(Y) = Hom, (7, Y)ye ace ce ee one has some civen Ttaction and T' acts on T via trans- lation and the given [+—»T . For example if we consider the inclusion IN» IReor aaaitive monoias, Y is essentially equipped with a single B-encenorphisn T {the action of 1€{N) and so is a “discrete time dynamica 1 "| ; ; ; system! and the associated continuous-time dynamical system H(Y) nas as its states alt S-maps Ri£s Y sor which fe+1)= FR) t fr all t20 IR* n norphism K—gerY where XE Sis now require (Xt) = FX) 2" in case tenis a whole number. [ie remark that, as in many 7 examples, our U" has also a left adjoint Yt—> JR'x Y SINT a tensor-like quotient space of JRxY, which gives a different to notion of “continuous-time systen associated to a discrete- time system dl Such a morphism P is chaotic (in the present relative sense) if and only if every f of the kind described above are, for some xtX of the form f(b)=- P(t) fr all t. of courses (ites are ecendard) examles|(or auchs J! , namely) the evaluation at_0t X = H(Y)—oY, aut tne noverty would be to find constructed by other means.In the case of a surjective Ti, such as R Re induced by a given period, H{y) C6Y is simply the subspace of the T‘-systen Y consisting of points having that period, so for X gery to be "chaotic" relative to | ——>/ simply means that al those points of Y having the period in question are values of P . As a final example, consider the problem of solving differential equations. From the point of view of "synthetic Differential Geometry" Ly this can be considered as a special case of the special class of adjoints arising from a change of monoid —> IR, pvt in any case, it S& is a reasonable category of differentiable spaces, we can consider the category y whose typical object Y is a space in equipped with a vector field, and whose morphisms are smooth maps Y; —> Y) which conmute with the designated vector fields. then if % ‘is the category of reversible continuous-time flows, there is a functor % SY civen by differentiating each flow at C=Q. the right adjoint to U assigns to each such differential equation Y the space HY) of all solution curves which are defined for alt time. Thus for the agjunction map H(Y)—> Y to be “chaotic” in this context merely means that through eachpoint of Y there is s solution curve which extends for all time. More generally if x is a flow ana Ya vector field, a compatible map XBoYis chaotic" xelative to the differentiation functor U iff every solution curve for Y is for some % the F the flow through X . ace of That the last few examples sound more like normal, reasonable behavior than like pathological chaos is explained in terms of the extent to which the functor UT , or more particularly the monoid homomorphism T'~—=>T , i an isomorphism? Tm the basic example 15T, Yo H(y, sY is a big jump, so surjectivity of gy is harder to come by In the case of CD)CgIR, the functor Ul is not auite an equivalence but reasonable Yo "think" it is in that e T H(V/)29Yaue to te etrons existence and uniqueness property; thus for such Y , the surjectivity of FP itself is suffici, ror F tobe "chaotic’. BJ Saari, D.G., and Urenko, J.B, "Newton's method, Circle Maps, and Chaotic Motion", american Mathematical Monthly, Jan. 1984 [2] coppel, W.a., "Maps on an Interval", IMA Preprint Series #26, June 1983, Institute for Mathematics and its appli- cations, University of Minnesota. Bl Kock, A. Synthetic Differential Geometry, LMS Lecture note Series #51, Cambridge University Press 1981.