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Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map

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IOP PUBLISHING NONLINEARITY
Nonlinearity 24 (2011) 1473–1498 doi:10.1088/0951-7715/24/5/005

Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer

operators of a partially expanding map
Frédéric Faure
Institut Fourier, 100 rue des Maths, BP74 38402 St Martin d’Hères, France

E-mail: frederic.faure@ujf-grenoble.fr

Received 25 February 2010, in final form 2 March 2011

Published 31 March 2011
Online at stacks.iop.org/Non/24/1473

Recommended by S Nonnenmacher

Abstract
We consider a specific family of skew product of partially expanding map on the
torus. We study the spectrum of the Ruelle transfer operator and show that in the
limit of high frequencies in the neutral direction (this is a semiclassical limit),
the spectrum develops a spectral gap, for a generic map. This result has already
been obtained by Tsujii (2008 Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 28 291–317). The
novelty here is that we use semiclassical analysis which provides a different and
quite natural description. We show that the transfer operator is a semiclassical
operator with a well-defined ‘classical dynamics’ on the cotangent space. This
classical dynamics has a ‘trapped set’ which is responsible for the Ruelle
resonances spectrum. In particular, we show that the spectral gap is closely
related to a specific dynamical property of this trapped set.

Mathematics Subject Classification: 37D20, 37C30, 81Q20

S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/Non/24/1473/mmedia

1. Introduction

Chaotic behaviour of certain dynamical systems is due to hyperbolicity of the trajectories. This
means that the trajectories of two closed initial points will diverge from each other either in
the future or in the past (or both). As a result the behaviour of an individual trajectory seems
complicated and unpredictable. However, evolution of a cloud of points seems more simple:
it will spread and equidistributes according to an invariant measure, called an equilibrium
measure (or S.R.B. measure). Following this idea, Ruelle in the 1970 [Rue78, Rue86] has
shown that instead of considering individual trajectories, it is much more natural to consider
evolution of densities under a linear operator called the Ruelle transfer operator or the Perron
Frobenius operator.

0951-7715/11/051473+26$33.00 © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd & London Mathematical Society Printed in the UK & the USA 1473
1474 F Faure

For dynamical systems with strong chaotic properties, such as uniformly expanding
maps or uniformly hyperbolic maps, Ruelle, Bowen, Fried, Rugh and others, using symbolic
dynamics techniques, have shown that the spectrum of the transfer operator has a discrete
spectrum of eigenvalues. This spectral description has an important meaning for the dynamics
since each eigenvector corresponds to an invariant distribution (up to a time factor). From this
spectral characterization of the transfer operator, one can derive other specific properties of
the dynamics such as decay of time correlation functions, central limit theorem, mixing, etc.
In particular, a spectral gap implies exponential decay of correlations.
This spectral approach has recently (2002–2005) been improved by Blank, Gouzel, Keller,
Liverani [BKL02, GL05, Liv05] and Baladi and Tsujii [Bal05, BT07] (see [BT07] for some
historical remarks), through the construction of functional spaces adapted to the dynamics,
independent of any symbolic dynamics. The case of dynamical systems with continuous time
is more delicate (see [FMT07] for historical remarks). This is due to the direction of time flow
which is neutral (i.e. two nearby points on the same trajectory will not diverge from each other).
In 1998 Dolgopyat [Dol98, Dol02] showed the exponential decay of correlation functions for
certain Anosov flows, using techniques of oscillatory integrals and symbolic dynamics. In
2004 Liverani [Liv04] adapted Dolgopyat’s ideas to his functional analytic approach, to treat
the case of contact Anosov flows. In 2005 Tsujii [Tsu08] obtained an explicit estimate for the
spectral gap for the suspension of an expanding map. Then in 2008 Tsujii [Tsu10b, Tsu10a]
obtained an explicit estimate for the spectral gap, in the case of contact Anosov flows.
This work is also closely related to the series of work [GLZ04, SZ04] where the authors
study the Zeta function and the density of Ruelle resonances associated with the hyperbolic
flow on Schottky manifold and for the quadratic map. In [Chr] the author studies an hyperbolic
closed trajectory.

Semiclassical approach for transfer operators. It has appeared recently [FR06, FRS08] that
for hyperbolic dynamics, the study of transfer operator is naturally a semiclassical problem
in the sense that a transfer operator can be considered as a ‘Fourier integral operator’ and
using standard tools of semiclassical analysis1 , some of its spectral properties can be obtained
from the study of ‘the associated classical symplectic dynamics’, namely the initial hyperbolic
dynamics lifted on the cotangent space (the phase space).
The simple idea behind this, crudely speaking, is that a transfer operator transports a ‘wave
packet’ (i.e. localized both in space and in Fourier space) into another wave packet, and this is
exactly the characterization of a Fourier integral operator. A wave packet is characterized by
a point in phase space (its position and its momentum), hence one is naturally led to study the
dynamics in phase space. Moreover, since any function or distribution can be decomposed as
a linear superposition of wave packets, the dynamics of wave packets characterizes completely
the transfer operators.
Following this approach, in the papers [FR06, FRS08] we studied hyperbolic
diffeomorphisms. In [FS10] we studied uniformly hyperbolic flows on a compact manifold.
The aim of this paper is to show that semiclassical analysis is well adapted for hyperbolic
systems with a neutral direction. We consider here the simplest model: a partially expanding
map f : (x, s) → f (x, s), i.e. a map on a torus (x, s) ∈ S 1 × S 1 with an expanding
direction (x ∈ Sx1 ) and a neutral direction (s ∈ Ss1 ) (the inverse map f −1 is k-valued, with
k
2). The results are presented in section 2. We summarize them in a few lines. First
in order to reduce the problem and drop out the neutral direction, we use a Fourier analysis
1 We recommend reference [Tay96b, chapter 7] for the homogeneous semiclassical theory and [Mar02, EZ03] for
the semiclassical theory with a small h parameter.
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1475

in s ∈ Ss1 and decompose the transfer operator F̂ on Sx1 × Ss1 (defined by F̂ ϕ := ϕ ◦ f ) as

a collection of transfer operators F̂ν on the expanding space Sx1 only, with ν ∈ Z being the
Fourier parameter and playing the role of the semiclassical parameter. The semiclassical limit
is |ν| → ∞.
Then we introduce a (multivalued) map Fν on the cotangent space (x, ξ ) ∈ T ∗ Sx1 which
is the canonical map associated with the transfer operator F̂ν . The fact that the initial map f
is expanding along the space Sx1 implies that on the cylinder T ∗ Sx1 trajectories starting from
a large enough value of |ξ | escape towards infinity (|ξ | → ∞). We define the trapped set as
the compact set K = limn→∞ Fν−n (K0 ) where K0 ⊂ T ∗ S 1 is an initial large compact set. K
contains trajectories which do not escape towards infinity.
Using a standard semiclassical approach (with escape functions on phase space [HS86])
we first show that the operator F̂ν has a discrete spectrum called Ruelle resonances (we have
to consider F̂ν in Sobolev space of distributions). This is theorem 2. This result is well known,
but the semiclassical approach we use here is new.
Then we show that a specific hypothesis on the trapped set implies that the operator F̂ν
develops a ‘spectral gap’ in the semiclassical limit ν → ∞ (i.e. its spectral radius reduces).
This is theorem 3 illustrated in figure 2. This theorem is very similar to theorem 1.1 in [Tsu08].
With the semiclassical approach, this result is very intuitive: the basic idea (followed in the
proof) is that an initial wave packet ϕ0 represented as a point on the trapped set K evolves in
several wave packets (ϕj )j =1→k under the transfer operator F̂ν , but in general only one wave
packet remains on the trapped set K and the (k − 1) other ones escape towards infinity. As
a result the probability
√ on the trapped set K decays by a factor 1/k. This is the origin of the
spectral gap at 1/ k in figure 2.

2. Model and results

2.1. A partially expanding map

Let g : S 1 → S 1 be a C ∞ diffeomorphism (on S 1 := R/Z). g can be written as g : R → R
with g(x + 1) = g(x) + 1, ∀x ∈ R. Let k ∈ N, k
2, and let the map E : S 1 → S 1 be
defined by
E : x ∈ S 1 → E(x) = kg(x) mod 1. (1)
Let



dE dg
Emin := min (x) = k min (x) .
x dx x dx
dg
We will suppose that the function g is such that dx
(x) > k1 , i.e.
Emin > 1 (2)
so that E is a uniform expanding map on S 1 . The map E is then a k : 1 map (i.e. every point
y has k previous images x ∈ E −1 (y)). Let τ : S 1 → R be a C ∞ function, and define a map f
on T2 = S 1 × S 1 by2 :
 

 x
= E(x) = kg(x) mod 1
x
f : −→ 
1 . (3)
s s =s+ τ (x) mod 1
2π
2 1
The factor 2π in front of τ (x) is just for convenience. It will simplify other expressions below.
1476 F Faure

Figure 1. Numerical evolution of an initial small cloud of points on the torus (x, s) ∈ T2 under
the map f , equation (3), at different time n = 0, 2, 10, 19. We have chosen here E(x) = 2x and
τ (x) = cos(2π x). The initial cloud of points is centred around the point (0, 0). For small time n,
the cloud of point is transported in the vertical direction s and spreads in the expanding horizontal
direction x. Due to instability in x and periodicity, the cloud fills the torus S 1 × S 1 for large time
n. On the last image n = 19, one observes an invariant absolutely continuous probability measure
(called SRB measure, equal to the Lebesgue measure in our example). It reveals the mixing property
of the map f in this example (see supplementary data available at stacks.iop.org/Non/24/1/mmedia
or www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/∼faure/articles/09 html partially expanding maps).

The map f is also a k : 1 map. The map f is a very simple example of a compact group
extension of the expanding map E (see [Dol02, Pes04, p 17]). It is also a special example of a
partially hyperbolic map3 . See figure 1.

2.2. Transfer operator

Instead of studying individual trajectories which have chaotic behaviour, one prefer to study
the evolutions of densities induced by the map f . This is the role of the Perron–Frobenius
transfer operator F̂ ∗ on C ∞ (T2 ) given by:
 1
(F̂ ∗ ψ)(y ) = ψ(x), ψ ∈ C ∞ (T2 ). (4)
−1
|D x f |
x∈f (y )

Indeed if the the function ψ has its support in the vicinity of x then the support of F̂ ∗ ψ
is in the vicinity of y = f (x). To explain the Jacobian in the pre-factor, one checks4 that
∗
T2 (F̂ ψ)(y ) dy = T2 ψ(x) dx, i.e. the total measure is preserved.
The operator F̂ ∗ extends to a bounded operator on L2 (T2 , dx). Its L2 -adjoint
 written F̂ is
defined by (F̂ ∗ ψ, ϕ)L2 = (ψ, F̂ ϕ)L2 , with the scalar product (ψ, ϕ)L2 := T2 ψ(x)ϕ(x) dx.
One checks easily that F̂ has a simpler expression than F̂ ∗ : it is the pull back operator, also
3 A even more general setting would be a C ∞ map f : M → M on a compact Riemannian manifold M, which is
supposed to be partially expanding, i.e. for any m ∈ M, the tangent space Tm M decomposes continuously as
Tm M = Eu (m) ⊕ E0 (m),
where Eu (m) is a (non-invariant) expanding direction (with respect to a Riemannian metric g):
|Dm f (vu )|g > |vu |g , ∀vu ∈ Eu (m)
and E0 (m) the neutral direction: there exist a non-zero global section v0 ∈ C ∞ (T M) such that v0 (m) ∈ E0 (m) and
Df (v0 ) = v0 . In our example (3), M = S 1 × S 1 , the neutral section is v0 = (0, 1), and the expanding direction
Eu (m) is spanned by the vector (1, 0).
4 Since y = f (x), then dy = |D f | dx, and
x

∗ 1
(F̂ ψ)(y ) dy = ψ(x)|Dx f | dx = ψ(x) dx.
T2 T2 −1
|Dx f | T2
x∈f (y )
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1477

called the Koopman operator, or Ruelle transfer operator and given by

(F̂ ψ)(x) = ψ(f (x)). (5)

2.3. The reduced transfer operator

The particular form of map (3) allows some simplifications. Observe that for a function of
the form
ψ(x, s) = ϕ(x)ei2π νs
with ν ∈ Z (i.e. a Fourier mode in s), then
(F̂ ψ)(x, s) = ϕ(E(x))eiντ (x) ei2π νs .
Therefore, the operator F̂ preserves the following decomposition in Fourier modes:

L2 (T2 ) = Hν , Hν := {ϕ(x)ei2π νs , ϕ ∈ L2 (S 1 )}. (6)

ν∈Z

The space Hν and L (S ) are unitary equivalent. For ν ∈ Z given, the operator F̂ restricted to
2 1

the space Hν ≡ L2 (S 1 ), written F̂ν is5

(F̂ν ϕ)(x) := ϕ(E(x))eiντ (x) , ϕ ∈ L2 (S 1 ) ≡ Hν , (7)
and with respect to the orthogonal decomposition (6), we can write

F̂ = F̂ν .
ν∈Z

We will study the spectrum of this family of operators F̂ν , with parameter ν ∈ Z, and
consider more generally a real parameter ν ∈ R. We will see that the parameter ν is a
semiclassical parameter, and ν → ∞ is the semiclassical limit. (if ν = 0, ν = 1/h̄ in usual
notations [Mar02]).

Remarks.
• For ν = 0, F̂0 has an obvious eigenfunction ϕ(x) = 1, with eigenvalue 1. Except in
special cases (e.g. τ = 0 or τ cohomologous to 0, see appendix A), there is no other
obvious eigenvalues for F̂ν in L2 (S 1 ) even in the semiclassical limit ν → ∞. By this,
we mean that the author is not aware of the existence of analytical expressions for the
eigenvalues.

2.4. Main results on the spectrum of the transfer operator F̂ν

We first observe that by duality6 , the operator F̂ν defined in (7) extends to the distribution
space D
(S 1 ):
F̂ν (α)(ϕ) = α(F̂ν∗ (ϕ)), α ∈ D
(S 1 ), ϕ ∈ C ∞ (S 1 ), (8)
where the L2 -adjoint F̂ν∗ is given by
 e−iντ (x)
(F̂ν∗ ϕ)(y) = ϕ(x), ϕ ∈ C ∞ (S 1 ). (9)
−1
E
(x)
x∈E (y)

5 Note that the operator F̂ν appears to be a transfer operator for the expanding map E with an additional weight
function eiντ (x) . 
S 1 ϕα =
6 The complex conjugation in (8) is because duality is related to scalar product on L2 (S 1 ) by α(ϕ) :=

(ϕ, α)L2 for any α, ϕ ∈ L2 (S 1 ).

1478 F Faure

Before giving the main results, recall that for m ∈ R, the Sobolev space H m (S 1 ) ⊂ D
(S 1 )
consists in distributions 
(or continuous functions if m > 1/2) ψ such that their Fourier series
ψ̂(ξ ) satisfy ψ2H m := ξ ∈2π Z |ξ m ψ̂(ξ )|2 < ∞, with ξ  := (1+ξ 2 )1/2 . It can equivalently
be written ([Tay96a, p 271]).
H m (S 1 ) := ξ̂ −m (L2 (S 1 ))
with the differential operator ξ̂ := −i dx
d
.
The following theorem is well known [Rue86]. We will, however, provide a new proof
based on semiclassical analysis.
Theorem 2 (Discrete spectrum of resonances). Let m < 0. For any ν ∈ Z, the operator F̂ν
leaves the Sobolev space H m (S 1 ) invariant, and
F̂ν : H m (S 1 ) → H m (S 1 )
is a bounded operator and can be written
F̂ν = R̂ν + K̂ν , (10)
where K̂ν is a compact operator, and R̂ν has a small norm:

1 k
R̂ν H m  rm := |m| (11)
Emin Emin
(the interesting situation is m  0, since the norm R̂ν H m shrinks to zero for m → −∞).
Therefore, F̂ν has an essential spectral radius less than rm , which means that F̂ν has
discrete (possibly empty) spectrum of generalized eigenvalues λi outside the circle of radius
rm (see [Tay96a, prop 6.9, p 499]). The eigenvalues λi are called Ruelle resonances. Together
with their associated eigenspace, they do not depend on m and are intrinsic to the transfer
operator F̂ν .
The following theorem is analogous to theorem 1.1 in [Tsu08]. However, the approach
and the proof we propose are different and rely on semiclassical analysis.
Theorem 3 (Spectral gap in the semiclassical limit). If the map f is partially captive
(definition given in p 1489) (and m sufficiently negative), then the spectral radius of the
operator F̂ν : H m (S 1 ) → H m (S 1 ) does not depend on m and satisfies in the semiclassical
limit ν → ∞:
1
rs (F̂ν )  √ + o(1), (12)
Emin
which is strictly smaller than 1 from (2). The following result gives a more precise information
about the norm of the operator that is controlled uniformly in ν and will be used in theorem 5.
For any ρ > √E1 , there exists c > 0,n0 ∈ N, ν0 ∈ N, m0 < 0 such that for any |ν|
ν0 ,
min

m < m0 we have F̂νn0 Hνm  ρ n0 . Then for any n ∈ N,

F̂νn Hνm  cρ n , (13)

where  · Hνm is the Sobolev norm defined by ψ2Hνm := ξ ∈2π Z | ν ξ  ψ̂(ξ )| .
1 m 2

Remarks.
• This remark concerns the regularity of the eigenfunctions of F̂ν . Let λi be a generalized
eigenvalue of F̂ν . Let ϕi denotes a generalized eigenfunction of F̂ν associated with λi (i.e.
F̂ν ϕi = λi ϕi if λi is an eigenvalue). A corollary of theorem 2 is that for any m such that
m < m0 < 0 where m0 is given by rm0 = |λi | (as defined in (11)) then λi is an eigenvalue
of F̂ν and therefore ϕi belongs to the Sobolev space H m (S 1 ).
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1479

Figure 2. Black dots are numerical computation of the eigenvalues λi ∈ C of F̂ν for
different values of ν ∈ N, and union of these in the last image. We have chosen
here E(x) = 2x i.e. k = 2, and τ (x)√ = cos(2π x). √ The external circle has
radius 1. The internal circle has radius 1/ Emin = 1/ 2 and represents the upper
bound given in equation (12). As ν ∈ R moves continuously, the resonances move in
a spectacular way (see supplementary data available at stacks.iop.org/Non/24/1/mmedia or
www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/∼faure/articles/09 html partially expanding maps).

• By duality we have similar spectral results for the Perron Frobenius operator F̂ν∗ in the dual
spaces (H m (S 1 ))∗ = H −m (S 1 ), with m < 0. The eigenvalues of F̂ν∗ are λi . An associated
generalized eigenfunctions ϕ̃i of F̂ν∗ belongs to H −m (S 1 ) if m < m0 < 0 where m0 is
given by rm0 = |λi | as above, therefore ϕ̃i belongs to m<m0 H −m = H ∞ = C ∞ (S 1 ).
• In the proof of theorem 3, we will obtain that a general bound for rs (F̂ν ) (with no hypothesis
on f ) is given by



1 1 log N (n)
rs (F̂ν )  √ exp lim + o(1), (14)
Emin 2 n→∞ n
where the function N (n) will be defined in equation (44). This bound is similar to the
bound given in [Tsu08, theorem 1.1] by Tsujii.
• In [Tsu08, theorem 1.2] Tsujii shows that the partially captive property, i.e.
limn→∞ ( log Nn (n) ) = 0, is true for almost all functions τ . He does not use the terminology
‘partially captive’ but it is equivalent. In [Tsu08, theorem 1.2] Tsujii proves this property
for linear map E(x) = kx but in [Tsu08, remark 1.5] he argues that this should be true for
nonlinear map as well. See also [Wei10]. However, the author does not know any smooth
function τ for which this property holds. From numerical computations, it seems that it
holds for τ (x) = cos(2πx), used in figure 2.
1480 F Faure

• From the definition of N (n) it is clear that N (n)  k n hence exp( 21 limn→∞ ( log Nn (n) )) 
√
k. Also from the definition of Emin , it is clear that Emin  k and therefore the upper
bound in (14) is not sharp since it does not give the obvious bound rs (F̂ν )  1 (see [FRS08,
√
corollary 2]). In [Tsu08, theorem 1.4] Tsujii proves that exp( 21 limn→∞ ( log Nn (n) )) < k
if and only if τ is not a co-boundary. This implies a spectral gap for the linear model
E(x) = kx.
• Note that the above results say nothing about the existence of Ruelle resonances λi . In
the literature there are many results concerning the existence of resonances [Nau08].
• One observes numerically that for large ν ∈ R, the eigenvalues λi (ν) repulse each
other like eigenvalues of random complex matrices. This suggests that many important
questions of quantum chaos (e.g. the conjecture of Random Matrices [Boh91]) also
concerns the Ruelle resonances of partially hyperbolic dynamics in the semiclassical
limit. The semiclassical limit is precisely the limit of small wavelength in the neutral
direction.
• Remarks on numerical computation of the Ruelle resonances: one diagonalizes the matrix
which expresses the operator F̂ν in Fourier basis ϕn (x) := exp(i2π nx), n ∈ Z. For the

example of figure 2 one obtains ϕn

|F̂ν ϕn  = e−i2π 4 (2n−n ) J(2n−n
) (ν) where Jn (x) is the
3

Bessel function of first kind [AS54, 9.1.21 p 360]. Corollary 2 in [FR06] guaranties
that the eigenvalues of the truncated matrix |n|, |n
|  N converges towards the Ruelle
resonances as N → ∞.
• One can prove [Arn10] that in the semiclassical limit ν → ∞, the number of Ruelle
resonances λi (counting multiplicities) outside a fixed radius λ is bounded by a ‘Weyl
upper bound’:


ν
∀λ > 0,
{i ∈ N, s.t. |λi |
λ}  µ(K) + o(ν),
2π

where µ(K) is the Lebesgue measure of the trapped set K defined later in equation (43).
As usual in the semiclassical theory of non-self-adjoint operators, see [Sjö90, SZ07], the
Weyl law gives an upper bound for the density of resonances but no lower bound. See
discussions in [Non08, section 3.1].

2.5. Spectrum of F̂ν and dynamical correlation functions

In this section, in order to give some ‘physical meaning’ to the spectrum of F̂ν , we recall
relations between the spectral results of theorems 2 and 3 and the evolution of correlation
functions [Bal00]. This will allow us to interpret the evolution and convergence of clouds of
points observed in figure 1.
We first give an immediate corollary of theorem 2. Let ν ∈ Z. For ε > 0, let m such
that rm < ε, (rm is defined in (11)). We denote by π the spectral projector associated with
F̂ν : H m (S 1 ) → H m (S 1 ) outside the disc of radius ε, and k̂ν := π̂ F̂ν , r̂ν := (1 − π̂ )F̂ν . Then
we have a spectral decomposition7

F̂ν = k̂ν + r̂ν , k̂ν r̂ν = r̂ν k̂ν = 0 (15)

7 Note that in (10) the operators R̂ν ,K̂ν are different from r̂ν , k̂ν . They are not a spectral decomposition of F̂ν .
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1481

and
1. The spectral radius of r̂ν is smaller than ε.
2. k̂ν has finite rank. Its spectrum has generalized eigenvalues λi,ν (counting multiplicity),
the Ruelle resonances, with ε < |λi,ν |. The general Jordan decomposition of k̂ν can be
written as  
 di i −1
d
k̂ν = λi,ν vi,j,ν ⊗ wi,j,ν + vi,j,ν ⊗ wi,j +1,ν  (16)
i
0,|λi,ν |>ε j =1 j =1

with di the dimension of the Jordan block associated with the eigenvalue λi,ν , with
vi,j,ν ∈ H m , wi,j,ν ∈ H −m (wi,j,ν is viewed as a linear form on H m by duality). They
satisfy wi,j,ν (vk,l,ν ) = δik δj l .
If ψ1 , ψ2 ∈ C ∞ (S 1 ), the correlation function at time n ∈ N is defined by
Cψ2 ,ψ1 (n) := (F̂ν∗n ψ2 , ψ1 )L2 (S 1 ) = (ψ2 , F̂νn ψ1 )L2 (S 1 ) ,
which represents the function ψ2 evolved n times by the Perron–Frobenius operator F̂ν∗ and
tested against the test function ψ1 .
Lemma 4. For any ψ1 , ψ2 ∈ C ∞ (S 1 ), ε > 0 such that ε = |λi |, ∀i, one has for n → ∞,
 i −1)
min(n,d i −k
d
Cψ2 ,ψ1 (n) = Cnk λn−k
i,ν vi,j,ν (ψ2 )wi,j +k,ν (ψ1 ) + ψ1 H m ψ2 H −m O(ε n )
i
0,|λi,ν |>ε k=0 j =1
(17)
n!
with any m such that rm < ε, and Cnk := (n−k)!k!
.

Remarks.
• More generally equation (17) still holds for ψ1 ∈ H m and ψ2 ∈ H −m , with m such that
rm < ε.
• The right-hand side of equation (17) is complicated by the possible presence of ‘Jordan
blocks’. In the case where there is no Jordan block (di = 1, ∀i) it reads more simply: for
n → ∞,

Cψ2 ,ψ1 (n) = λni,ν vi,ν (ψ2 )wi,ν (ψ1 ) + O(ε n ).
i
0,|λi,ν |>ε

Proof. For any ε > 0, let m such that rm < ε. For any n
1 we have F̂νn = k̂νn + r̂νn and
r̂νn H m = O(ε n ). If ψ1 ∈ H m , ψ2 ∈ H −m then we use the Cauchy–Schwartz inequality
|(ψ, ϕ)H −m ×H m |  ψH −m ϕH m to write
Cψ2 ,ψ1 (n) = (ψ2 , F̂νn ψ1 )L2 (18)
= (ψ2 , k̂νn ψ1 )L2 + (ψ2 , r̂νn ψ1 )L2
= (ψ2 , k̂νn ψ1 )L2 + ψ2 H −m ψ1 H m O(ε n ).
Using the Jordan Block decomposition of k̂ν , equation (16), we have
 i −1)
min(n,d i −k
d
(ψ2 , k̂νn ψ1 ) = Cnk λn−k
i,ν (ψ2 , vi,j,ν )wi,j +k,ν (ψ1 ), (19)
i
0,|λi,ν |>ε k=0 j =1

 i −1)
min(n,d i −k
d
= Cnk λn−k
i,ν vi,j,ν (ψ2 )wi,j +k,ν (ψ1 ). (20)
i
0,|λi,ν |>ε k=0 j =1
We have obtained equation (17). 
1482 F Faure

We can then draw some conclusions for the full map f and its transfer operator F̂ , defined
in equation (5) instead of merely the restricted transfer operator F̂ν , ν ∈ Z. We recall first
that λ0,0 = 1 is an obvious eigenvalue for F̂ν=0 with eigenfunction v0,0 (x) = 1. If λ0,0 is
∗
non-degenerate, we denote w0,0 (x) ∈ C ∞ (S 1 ) the dual eigenfunction, i.e. F̂ν=0 w0,0 = w0,0 .

Theorem 5 (Mixing on T2 ). If the conclusion of theorem 3 for a spectral gap holds then for
any ρ > √E1 there exists ν0 ∈ Z such that for any 1 , 2 ∈ C ∞ (T2 ), for n → ∞,
min

C 2 , 1 (n) : = (F̂ ∗n 2 , 1 )L2 (T2 ) = ( 2 , F̂ n 1 )L2 (T2 ) (21)

  i −1)
min(n,d i −k
d
= Cnk λn−k
i,ν vi,j,ν ( 2,ν )wi,j +k,ν ( 1,ν ) (22)
ν,|ν|<ν0 i
0,|λi,ν |>ρ k=0 j =1
n
+ O(ρ ), (23)
∞
where 1,ν ∈ C (S ) (respectively, 2,ν ) are the components of 1 (respectively 2 ) with
1

respect to the decomposition (6). If moreover λ0,0 = 1 is the only eigenvalue of F̂ on the unit
circle (with multiplicity 1) with associated eigen-states v0,0 = 1, w0,0 (x) ∈ C ∞ (S 1 ), then the
map f on T2 is ‘mixing’ i.e. for n → ∞:



C 2 , 1 (n) → 2 (x, s) dx ds) 1 dµSRB (24)
T2 T2

with the ‘equilibrium Sina–Ruelle–Bowen measure’ dµSRB = w0,0 (x) dx ds.

Proof. For smooth functions 1 , 2 ∈ C ∞ (T2 ) we have for any m, and any N
0,
 1,ν Hνm = O( ν1N ),  2,ν Hν−m = O( ν1N ). On the other hand, if the conclusion of theorem 3
for a spectral gap holds then for any ρ > √E1 there exists ν0 ∈ Z such that for any ν, |ν|
ν0 ,
min

F̂ν has no spectrum outside the disc of radius ρ. Then (17) and (13) give: there exists c > 0,
n0 ∈ N, ν0 ∈ N, m0 < 0 such that for any |ν|
ν0 , m < m0 , any n ∈ N,
( 2,ν , F̂νn 1,ν )L2 (S 1 )   1,ν Hνm  2,ν Hν−m F̂νn Hνm , for |ν|
ν0
CN n
 N cρ .
ν

Hence for N large enough, |ν|
ν0 |( 2,ν , F̂νn 1,ν )L2 (S 1 ) |  O(ρ n ). We use lemma 4 with
ε = ρ and obtain

C 2 , 1 (n) = ( 2 , F̂ n 1 )L2 (T2 ) = ( 2,ν , F̂νn 1,ν )L2 (S 1 )
ν∈Z
 
= ( 2,ν , F̂νn 1,ν )L2 (S 1 ) + ( 2,ν , F̂νn 1,ν )L2 (S 1 )
|ν|<ν0 |ν|
ν0

  i −1)
min(n,d i −k
d
= Cnk λn−k
i,ν vi,j,ν ( 2,ν )wi,j +k,ν ( 1,ν ) + O(ρ n ).
ν,|ν|<ν0 i
0,|λi,ν |>ρ k=0 j =1

If λ0,0 = 1 is the only eigenvalue of F̂ on the unit circle (with multiplicity 1) and the other
ones are |λi,ν | < ρ < 1 this gives
C 2 , 1 (n) = v0,0 ( 2,0 )w0,0 ( 1,0 ) + O(ρ n )



= 2 (x, s) dx ds 1 dµSRB + O(ρ n ). 
T2 T2
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1483

Remarks
• In figure 1 one observes the mixing property of the dynamics and the equilibrium measure
on the last image. In this case (E(x) = 2x is linear) we have w0,0 (x) = 1 and the
equilibrium measure is the Lebesgue measure dµSRB = dx ds.
• In formula (21), note that this is a finite sum other the eigenvalues outside the disc of radius
ρ. This expression shows that the time behaviour of correlation functions is governed by
an effective linear operator of finite rank up to O(ρ n ), n → ∞. This effective linear
operator is the spectral projection of F̂ on the outer eigenspaces such that |λi,ν | > ρ. The
semiclassical theory used in this paper does not give direct information on this effective
operator, but on its existence and the fact that it is supported by the low Fourier modes.

3. Proof of theorem 2 on resonances spectrum

In this proof, we follow closely the proof of theorem 4 in [FRS08] although we deal here with
expanding map instead of hyperbolic map, and this simplifies a lot, since we can work with
ordinary Sobolev spaces and not anisotropic Sobolev spaces. Here ν ∈ Z is fixed.

3.1. Dynamics on the cotangent space T ∗ S 1

The first step is to realize that in order to study the spectral properties of the transfer operator,
we have to study the dynamics lifted on the cotangent space. This basic idea has already been
exploited in [FRS08].
In equation (1), the map E : S 1 → S 1 is a k : 1 map, which means that every point y ∈ S 1
has k inverses denoted by xε ∈ E −1 (y) and given explicitly by


y 1
xε = Eε−1 (y) = g −1 +ε , with ε = 0, . . . , k − 1, y ∈ [0, 1[.
k k
We will denote the derivative by E
(x) := dE/dx.
Proposition 6. In equation (7) F̂ν is a Fourier integral operator (FIO) acting on C ∞ (S 1 ).
The associated canonical map on the cotangent space (x, ξ ) ∈ T ∗ S 1 ≡ S 1 ×R is k-valued
and given by
F (x, ξ ) = {F0 (x, ξ ), . . . , Fk−1 (x, ξ )}, (x, ξ ) ∈ S 1 × R, (25)
where for any ε = 0, . . . , k − 1,


x → x
= E −1 (x) = g −1 1 x + ε 1 ,
ε ε
Fε : k k (26)

ξ → ξε = E (xε )ξ = kg
(xε
)ξ.

Similarly the adjoint F̂ ∗ is a FIO whose canonical map is F −1 . See figure 3.

The proof is just that the operator ϕ → ϕ ◦ E on C ∞ (S 1 ) is one of the simplest example
of Fourier integral operator, see [Mar02, example 2, p 150].
The term eiντ (x) in equation (7) does not contribute to the expression of F , since here ν
is considered as a fixed parameter, and therefore eiντ (x) acts as a pseudodifferential operator
(equivalently as a FIO whose canonical map is the identity).
The map F is the map E −1 lifted on the cotangent space T ∗ S 1 in the canonical way.
Indeed, if we denote a point (x, ξ ) ∈ T ∗ S 1 ≡ S 1 × R then using the usual formula for
differentials y = E(x) = kg(x) ⇒ dy = E
(x) dx ⇔ ξ
= E
(x)ξ , we deduce the above
expression for F .
1484 F Faure

Figure 3. This figure is for k = 2. The map F = {F0 , . . . , Fk−1 } is 1 : k, and its inverse F −1
is k : 1 on T ∗ S 1 ≡ S 1 × R. The dynamics of F is also the dynamics of wave packets under the
transfer operator F̂ν .

Remarks
• The physical meaning for F̂ε being a Fourier Integral Operator (F.I.O.) and its relation
with the canonical map F can be well understood in term of dynamics of wave packets.
We provide a detailed presentation of this in the next section.
• Observe that the dynamics of the map F on S 1 × R has a quite simple property: the zero
section {(x, ξ ) ∈ S 1 × R, ξ = 0} is globally invariant and any other point with ξ = 0
escapes towards infinity (ξ → ±∞) in a controlled manner:
|ξε
|
Emin |ξ |, ∀ε = 0, . . . , k − 1, (27)
where Emin > 1 is given in (2).

3.2. Dynamics of wave packets

The reading of this section is not necessary for the rest of the paper. It is intended to the
reader non-familiar with Fourier integral operators and associated canonical maps. We show
that if ϕ(x,ξ ) is a wave packet ‘micro-localized’ at position (x, ξ ) ∈ T ∗ S 1 of phase space,
then ϕ
:= F̂ν ϕ(x,ξ ) is a superposition of k wave packets at positions (xε
, ξε
) = Fε (x, ξ ),
ε = 0, . . . , k − 1, given by the canonical map F . This is illustrated in figure 3.
Let h̄ > 0 be a parameter (called the semiclassical parameter), and for (x, ξ ) ∈ R2 ≡ T ∗ R
we define ϕ(x,ξ ) ∈ S (R) called a Gaussian wavepacket by
ϕ̃(x,ξ ) (y) := Cei h̄ yξ e− 2h̄ (y−x) ,
1 1 2
C > 0.
iy(ξ/h̄)
Note that in this last expression the factor e is similar to a Fourier mode with Fourier
component ξ/h̄. In other words, the role of h̄ in this factor is just a scaling in Fourier space.
This ‘artificial’ parameter h̄ is independent of ν in this section, whereas we will choose it such
that h̄ = 1/ν in section 4. 
We then construct the periodic function ϕ(x,ξ ) (y) := k∈Z ϕ̃(x,ξ ) (y − k) in C ∞ (S 1 ), and
choose C such that ϕ(x,ξ ) L2 (S 1 ) = 1. We easily observe that for h̄  1, ϕ(x,ξ ) (y) = O(h̄∞ )
is negligible if y = x mod 1, where O(h̄∞ ) means O(h̄N ) for any N > 0. Similarly
e−i h̄ ϕ̃(x,ξ ) (y) dy) is
ηy
the h̄-Fourier transform of ϕ̃(x,ξ ) (defined by (F ϕ̃(x,ξ ) )(η) := √2π 1
h̄
2
|(F ϕ̃(x,ξ ) )(η)| = C exp(− (η−ξ
2h̄
)
) and is negligible if η = ξ .
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1485

Alternatively this can be seen on the scalar product between two Gaussian wavepackets
which is also easy to compute:
|(ϕ(y,η) , ϕ(x,ξ ) )L2 (S 1 ) | = |(ϕ̃(y,η) , ϕ̃(x,ξ ) )L2 (R) | + O(e−c/h̄ ), c>0


1
= exp − ((x − y)2 + (ξ − η)2 ) + O(e−c/h̄ )
4h̄
= O(h̄∞ ) if (y, η) = (x, ξ ) (28)
Definition 7 ([Mar02], chapter 3). If ψh̄ ∈ L2 (R), h̄ → 0, is a sequence of functions, we say
that ψ is micro-locally small near (x0 , ξ0 ) ∈ T ∗ R if
|(ϕ̃(y,η) , ψ)L2 (R) | = O(h̄∞ )
uniformly for (y, η) in a neighbourhood of (x0 , ξ0 ). The complementary of such points (x0 , ξ0 )
is called the micro-support of ψ.
For example (28) shows that the micro-support of a Gaussian wavepacket ϕ̃(x,ξ ) is the
point (x, ξ ) ∈ T ∗ R.
Proposition 8. The micro-support of F̂ν ϕ(x,ξ ) is the set of points
F (x, ξ ) = {F0 (x, ξ ), . . . , Fk−1 (x, ξ )} ∈ T ∗ S 1 .
We have indeed uniformly in a neighbourhood of (y, η) = Fε (x, ξ ), ∀ε = 0, . . . , k − 1:
|(ϕ(y,η) , F̂ν ϕ(x,ξ ) )L2 (S 1 ) | = O(h̄∞ ).

Proof. We have
e−i h̄ ηz e− 2h̄ (y−z) e+i h̄ ξ E(z) e− 2h̄ (x−E(z)) eiντ (z) dz.
1 1 2 1 1 2
(ϕ̃(y,η) , F̂ν ϕ̃(x,ξ ) )L2 (R) = C 2 (29)
R
In the semiclassical limit h̄  1, because of the quadratic terms in the exponential, this is
clearly negligible if z = y or x = E(z) hence if y = Eε−1 (x) mod 1, ∀ε. But due to the high
oscillatory terms with the phase function ϕ(z) := −ηz + ξ E(z) this is also negligible from
the non-stationary phase approximation8 , if ϕ
(z) = −η + ξ E
(z) = 0 i.e. if η = E
(y)ξ .
Together this gives (y, η) = Fε (x, ξ ), ε = 0, . . . , k − 1. 

3.3. The escape function

The class of symbols9 S m , with order m ∈ R, consists of functions on the cotangent space
A ∈ C ∞ (S 1 × R) such that
|∂ξα ∂xβ A|∞  Cα,β ξ m−|α| , ξ  = (1 + ξ 2 )1/2 .
Lemma 9. Let m < 0 and define the C ∞ function on T ∗ S 1 :
Am (x, ξ ) := ξ m ∈ S m
with ξ  = (1+ξ 2 )1/2 . Am decreases with |ξ | and belongs to the symbol class S m . Equation (27)
implies that the function Am decreases strictly along the trajectories of F outside the zero
section:
Am (Fε (x, ξ ))
∀R > 0, ∀|ξ | > R, ∀ε = 0, . . . , k − 1  C |m| < 1,
 Am (x, ξ )
R2 + 1
with C = 2
< 1. (30)
R 2 Emin +1
One has C → 1/Emin for R → ∞.
 1
8 Let ϕ ∈ C ∞ (R) real valued, such that ϕ
= 0 every where. It u ∈ C0∞ (R) then the integral ei h̄ ϕ(x) u(x)dx is
rapidly decreasing when h̄ → 0 [EZ03, chaptre 3].
9 See [Tay96b, p 2].
1486 F Faure

Proof.

|m|/2
Am (Fε (x, ξ )) (1 + ξ 2 )|m|/2 (1 + ξ 2 )|m|/2 1 + R2
=   = C |m| . 
Am (x, ξ ) (1 + (ξε
)2 )|m|/2 2
(1 + Emin ξ 2 )|m|/2 2
1 + Emin R2
The symbol Am can be quantized into a pseudodifferential operator Âm (PDO for short)
which is self-adjoint and invertible on C ∞ (S 1 ) using the quantization rule ([Tay96b, p 2])

(Âϕ)(x) = A(x, ξ )ei(x−y)ξ ϕ(y) dy dµ(ξ ), (31)

with measure dµ(ξ ) = n∈Z δ(ξ − 2πn). In our simple case, this is very explicit: in Fourier
space, Âm is simply the multiplication by ξ m .
Recall that the Sobolev space H m (S 1 ) is defined by ([Tay96a, p 271]):
H m (S 1 ) := Â−1 2 1
m (L (S )).

The following commutative diagram:

Q̂m
L2 (S 1 ) → L2 (S 1 )
↓ Â−1
m  ↓ Â−1
m
F̂ν
H m (S 1 ) → H m (S 1 )
shows that F̂ν : H m (S 1 ) → H m (S 1 ) is unitary equivalent to
Q̂m := Âm F̂ν Â−1
m : L (S ) → L (S ).
2 1 2 1

We will therefore study the operator Q̂m . Note that Q̂m is defined a priori on a dense domain
(C ∞ (S 1 )). Define
P̂ := Q̂∗m Q̂m = Â−1 ∗ 2 −1 −1 −1
m (F̂ν Âm F̂ν )Âm = Âm B̂ Âm , (32)
where appears the operator
B̂ := F̂ν∗ Â2m F̂ν . (33)
The Egorov theorem will help us to treat this operator (see [Tay96b, p 24]). This is a
simple but crucial step in the proof: as explained in [FRS08], the Egorov theorem is the main
theorem used in order to establish both the existence of a discrete spectrum of resonances and
properties of them. However, there is a difference with [FRS08]: for the expanding map we
consider here, the operator F̂ν is not invertible and the canonical map F is k-valued. Therefore
we have to state the Egorov theorem in an appropriate way (we restrict, however, the statement
to our simple context).
Lemma 10 (Egorov theorem). B̂ := F̂ν∗ Â2m F̂ν is a pseudodifferential operator with symbol
in S 2m given by

 
1
B(x, ξ ) = 2
A (Fε (x, ξ )) + R (34)
ε=0,...,k−1
E
(xε
) m

with R ∈ S 2m−1 has a subleading order.

Proof. As we explained in proposition 6, F̂ν and F̂ν∗ are Fourier integral operators (FIO)
whose canonical map are respectively F and F −1 . The pseudodifferential operator (PDO)
Âm can also be considered as a FIO whose canonical map is the identity. By composition we
deduce that B̂ = F̂ν∗ Â2m F̂ν is a FIO whose canonical map is the identity since F −1 ◦ F = I .
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1487

See figure 3. Therefore B̂ is a PDO. Using (7), (9) and (26) we obtain that the principal symbol
of B̂ is
 1
A2 (Fε (x, ξ )).

(x
) m
(35)
ε=0,...,k−1
E ε

Remark. Contrary to (33), F̂ν Âm F̂ν∗ is not a PDO, but a FIO whose canonical map F ◦ F −1
is k−valued (see figure 3).
Now by theorem of composition of PDO ( [Tay96b, p 11], (32) and (34) imply that P̂ is a
PDO of order 0 with principal symbol:

 
B(x, ξ ) 1 A2m (Fε (x, ξ ))
P (x, ξ ) = 2 = .
Am (x, ξ ) ε=0,...,k−1
E
(xε
) A2m (x, ξ )
Estimate (30) together with (2) give the following upper bound:
 1 k
∀|ξ | > R, |P (x, ξ )|  C 2|m|
(x
)
 C 2|m|
ε=0,...,k−1
E ε E min

(This upper bound goes to zero as m → −∞). From L2 -continuity theorem for PDO we
deduce that for any α > 0 (see [FRS08, lemma 38])
P̂ = k̂α + p̂α
with k̂α a smoothing operator (hence compact) and p̂α   C 2|m| Ekmin + α. If Q̂m = Û |Q̂| is

the polar decomposition of Q̂m , with Û unitary, then from (32) P̂ = |Q̂|2 ⇔ |Q̂| = P̂ and
the spectral theorem ([Tay96b, p 75]) gives that |Q̂| has a similar decomposition
|Q̂| = k̂α
+ q̂α

with k̂α
smoothing and q̂α   C |m| k
Emin
+ α, with any α > 0. Since Û  = 1 we deduce a
similar decomposition for Q̂m = Û |Q̂| : L2 (S 1 ) → L2 (S 1 ) and we deduce (10) and (11) for
F̂ν : H m → H m . We also use the fact that C → 1/Emin for R → ∞ in (30).
The fact that the eigenvalues λi and their generalized eigenspaces do not depend on the
choice of space H m is due to density of Sobolev spaces. We refer to the argument given in the
proof of corollary 1 in [FRS08]. This completes the proof of theorem 2.

4. Proof of theorem 3 on spectral gap

We will follow step by step the same analysis as in the previous section. The main difference
now is that in theorem 3, ν  1 is a semiclassical parameter. In other words, we just perform
a linear rescaling in cotangent space: ξh := h̄ξ with
1
h̄ :=  1.
ν
Therefore, our quantization rule for a symbol A(x, ξh ) ∈ S m , equation (31) writes now
(see [Mar02, p 22])

(Âϕ)(x) = A(x, ξh )ei(x−y)ξh /h̄ ϕ(y) dy dµ(ξh ) (36)

with measure dµ(ξh ) = n∈Z δ(ξh − 2π nh̄). For simplicity we will write ξ for ξh below.
1488 F Faure

4.1. Dynamics on the cotangent space T ∗ S 1

If we consider again equation (29) then the multiplicative term eiντ (x) = eiτ (x)/h̄ contributes
now to the stationary phase approximation (the phase function is ϕ(z) = −ηz + ξ E(z) + τ (z)
so 0 = ϕ
(z) = −η + ξ E
(z) + τ
(z) implies η = E
(z)ξ + τ
(z)) and modifies the expression
of the canonical map F . We obtain:

Proposition 11. In equation (7) F̂ν is a semiclassical Fourier integral operator acting on
C ∞ (S 1 ) (with semiclassical parameter h̄ := 1/ν  1). The associated canonical map on
the cotangent space (x, ξ ) ∈ T ∗ S 1 ≡ S 1 × R is k-valued and given by
F (x, ξ ) = {F0 (x, ξ ), . . . , Fk−1 (x, ξ )}, (x, ξ ) ∈ S 1 × R, (37)

x → xε
= Eε−1 (x),
Fε : dτ
ε = 0, . . . , k − 1. (38)
ξ → ξε
= E
(xε
)ξ + (x ),
dx ε

Similarly F̂ν∗ is a FIO whose canonical map is F −1 .

Note that for simplicity we have kept the same notation for the canonical map F although
it differs from (26).
Since the map F is k-valued, a trajectory is a tree. Let us precise the notation:
∗
Definition 12. For ε = (. . . ε3 , ε2 , ε1 ) ∈ {0, . . . , k − 1}N , a point (x, ξ ) ∈ S 1 × R and time
n ∈ N∗ let us denote
Fεn (x, ξ ) := Fεn Fεn−1 . . . Fε1 (x, ξ ). (39)
∗
For a given sequence ε ∈ {0, . . . , k − 1}N , a trajectory issued from the point (x, ξ ) is
{Fεn (x, ξ ), n ∈ N}.

Note that at time n ∈ N, there are k n points issued from a given point (x, ξ ):
F n (x, ξ ) := {Fεn (x, ξ ), ε ∈ {0, . . . , k − 1}n }. (40)
The new term dτ
(x
)
in the expression of ξε
, equation (38), complicates significantly the
dx ε
dynamics near the zero section ξ = 0. However, a trajectory from an initial point with |ξ |
large enough still escape towards infinity:

Lemma 13. For any 1 < κ < Emin , there exists R
0 such that for any |ξ | > R, any
ε = 0, . . . k − 1,
|ξε
| > κ|ξ |. (41)

Proof. From (38), one has ξε

= E
(xε
)ξ + τ
(xε
), so ξε
− κξ = (E
(xε
) − κ)ξ + τ
(xε
)

τ

(Emin −κ)ξ +min τ

> 0 if ξ > − (Emin
min −κ)

0, and similarly ξε
−κξ  (Emin −κ)ξ +max τ
< 0

if ξ < − (Emax τ
min −κ)
. 

We will denote the set

Z := S 1 × [−R, R] (42)
outside of which trajectories escape in a controlled manner (41). See figure 4.
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1489

Figure 4. The trapped set K in the cotangent space S 1 × R. We have chosen here E(x) = 2x and
τ (x) = cos(2π x).

4.2. The trapped set K

We will be interested now in the trajectories of F which do not escape towards infinity.
Definition 14. We define the trapped set

K := (F −1 )n (Z ), (43)
n∈N

which contains points for which a trajectory at least does not escape towards infinity. See
figure 4. The definition of K does not depend on the compact set Z (if Z is chosen large
enough).
Since the map F is multivalued, some trajectories may escape from the trapped set. We
will need a characterization of how many such trajectories succeed to escape: For n ∈ N, let
N (n) := max
{Fεn (x, ξ ) ∈ Z , ε ∈ {0, . . . , k − 1}n }. (44)
(x,ξ )

See figure 5 for an illustration of N (n). Of course N (n)  k n .

Definition 15. The map F (or f ) is partially captive if10
log N (n)
−→ 0. (45)
n n→∞

This property is the hypothesis of theorem 3.

10It can be shown that log N (n) is sub-additive and therefore limn→∞ inf( log N
n
(n)
) = limn→∞ ( log N
n
(n)
)
[RS72, p 217, ex 11].
1490 F Faure

Figure 5. This Figure illustrates the trajectories Fεn (x, ξ ) issued from an initial point (x, ξ ) after
time n. Here k = 2 and n = 3. The property for the map F of being ‘partially captive’ according
to definition 15 is related to the number of points N (n) which do not escape from the compact zone
Z after time n.

Remarks.
• N (n) defined in (44) is the number of trajectories which do not escape outside the vicinity
Z of the trapped set before time n. Since there are k n trajectories which start from a
given point (x, ξ ) ∈ S 1 × R, the property for the map F to be ‘partially captive’, i.e.
log N (n)
n
−→ 0, means that ‘most’ of the trajectories escape from the trapped set K. See
n→∞
figure 5. Another description of the trapped set K and of the partially captive property
will be given in appendix B. Note that the function N (n), equation (44) depends on the
set Z but property (45) does not.
• If the function τ is trivial in (38), i.e. τ = 0 , then obviously all the trajectories issued
from a point (x, ξ ) on the line ξ = 0 remains on this line (the trapped set). Therefore

{Fεn (x, ξ ) ∈ Z , ε ∈ {0, 1, . . . , k − 1}n } = k n
and the map F is not partially captive (but could be called ‘totally captive’). This is also
true if the function τ is a ‘co-boundary’, i.e. if τ (x) = η(E(x)) − η(x) with η ∈ C ∞ (S 1 )
as discussed in appendix A.
• Tsujii has studied a dynamical system very similar to (38) in [Tsu01], but this model is
not volume preserving. He establishes there that the SRB measure on the trapped set is
absolutely continuous for almost every τ .

4.3. The escape function

Let m < 0 and consider the C ∞ function on T ∗ S 1 :
Am (x, ξ ) := ξ m for |ξ | > R + η,
:= 1 for ξ  R,
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1491

where η > 0 is small and with ξ  := (1 + ξ 2 )1/2 . Am decreases with |ξ | and belongs to the
symbol class S m .
Equation (41) implies that the function Am decreases strictly along the trajectories of F
outside the trapped set (similarly to equation (30)):
Am (Fε (x, ξ ))
∀|ξ | > R, ∀ε = 0, . . . , k − 1  C |m| < 1,
Am (x, ξ )

R2 + 1
with C= < 1. (46)
κ 2 R2 + 1
And for any point we have the general bound:
Am (Fε (x, ξ ))
∀ε = 0, . . . , k − 1, ∀(x, ξ ) ∈ T ∗ S 1 ,  1. (47)
Am (x, ξ )
Using the quantization rule (36), the symbol Am can be quantized giving a pseudodifferential
operator Âm which is self-adjoint and invertible on C ∞ (S 1 ). In our case Âm is simply a
multiplication operator by Am (ξ ) in Fourier space.
Let us consider the (usual) Sobolev space
Hνm (S 1 ) := Â−1 2 1
m (L (S )).

Then F̂ν : Hνm (S 1 ) → Hνm (S 1 ) is unitary equivalent to

Q̂ := Âm F̂ν Â−1
m : L (S ) → L (S ).
2 1 2 1

Let n ∈ N∗ (a fixed time which will be made large at the end of the proof) and define
P̂ (n) := Q̂∗n Q̂n = Â−1 ∗n 2 n −1
m F̂ν Âm F̂ν Âm . (48)
Using Egorov theorem (lemma 10) and theorem of composition of PDO [EZ03, chaptre 4], we
obtain that P̂ (n) is a PDO of order 0 with principal symbol
 
 1 A 2
(F n
(x, ξ ))
P (n) (x, ξ ) = 
(x)
m ε
2 (x, ξ )
, (49)
ε∈{0,...,k−1} n
E n A m
n −j
where En
(x) :=

j =1 E (Eεj (x)) is the expanding rate of the trajectory at time n.

Equation (2) implies that En
(x)
Eminn
. Now we will bound this (positive) symbol from
above, considering different cases for the trajectory Fεn (x, ξ ), as illustrated in figure 5.
1. If (x, ξ ) ∈
/ Z then (46) gives
A2 (Fεn (x, ξ )) A2 (Fεn (x, ξ )) A2 (Fε (x, ξ ))
2
= 2 n−1 ...  (C 2|m| )n (50)
A (x, ξ ) A (Fε (x, ξ )) A2 (x, ξ )
therefore
kn
P (n) (x, ξ )  n (C 2|m| )n .
Emin
(A2 ◦F n )(x,ξ )
2. If (x, ξ ) ∈ Z but Fεn−1 (x, ξ ) ∈
/ Z then (A2 ◦F n−1
ε
)(x,ξ )
 C 2|m| from (46). Using also (47)
ε
we have
A2 (Fεn (x, ξ )) A2 (Fεn (x, ξ )) A2 (Fε (x, ξ ))
= · · ·  C 2|m| . (51)
A2 (x, ξ ) A2 (Fεn−1 (x, ξ )) A2 (x, ξ )
3. In the other cases ((x, ξ ) ∈ Z and Fεn−1 (x, ξ ) ∈ Z ) we can only use (47) to bound:
A2 (Fεn (x, ξ ))
1 (52)
A2 (x, ξ )
1492 F Faure

From definition (44) we have

{Fεn−1 (x, ξ ) ∈ Z , ε ∈ {0, 1}n }  N (n − 1).
For (x, ξ ) ∈ Z , we split the sum equation (49) accordingly to cases 1,2 or 3 above. Note that
(C 2|m| )n  C 2|m| . This gives
1
P (n) (x, ξ )  n ((k n − N (n − 1))C 2|m| + N (n − 1))  B (53)
Emin
with the bound

n
k N (n − 1)
B := C 2|m| + n . (54)
Emin Emin
Then
sup |P (n) (x, ξ )|  B
(x,ξ )

With L2 continuity theorem for pseudodifferential operators [Mar02] this implies that in the
limit h̄ → 0
P̂ (n) L2 →L2  B + On (h̄). (55)
n
Polar decomposition of Q̂ gives

Q̂n L2 →L2  |Q̂n | = P̂ (n)   (B + On (h̄))1/2 . (56)
We make now the assumption that F be partially captive, equation (45). For any c > 0,
and some n we have log Nn (n) < c hence N (n) < ecn . In other words for any ρ > √E1 , there
min
N (n−1)
exists n ∈ N such that n
Emin
< ρ 2n .
We let h̄ = 1/ν → 0 first, and after m → −∞ giving C |m| → 0, and also we let n be
large enough. Then from (56) and (54) we have obtained that for any ρ > √E1 , there exists
min
n0 ∈ N, ν0 ∈ N, m0 < 0 such that for any |ν|
ν0 , m < m0 ,
F̂νn0 Hνm = Q̂n0 L2  ρ n0 . (57)
Also, there exists c > 0 independent of |ν|
ν0 , such that for any r such that 0  r < n0
we have Q̂r L2 < c. As a consequence for any n ∈ N we write n = kn0 + r with 0  r < n0
and
Q̂r L2
F̂νn Hνm = Q̂n L2  Q̂n0 kL2 Q̂r L2  ρ n  cρ n
ρr
with c > 0 independent of |ν|
ν0 . We have obtained (13).
For any n the spectral radius of Q̂ satisfies [RS72, p 192]
rs (Q̂)  Q̂n 1/n  c1/n ρ.
So we get that for h̄ = 1/ν → 0,
1
rs (F̂ν ) = rs (Q̂)  √ + o(1).
Emin
Without the assumption that F be partially captive, equation (45), we have more generally



N (n − 1) 1/2n 1 1
n = √ exp log N (n − 1)
Emin Emin 2n
and



1 log N (n)
rs (Q̂)  exp lim inf + o(1). (58)
Emin n→∞ n
We have completed the proof of theorem 3.
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1493

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Masato Tsujii and Colin Guillarmou for interesting discussions. This work
has been supported by the ‘Agence Nationale de la Recherche’ under the grant JC05 52556.

Appendix A. Equivalence classes of dynamics

Let us make a simple and well-known observation about equivalent classes of dynamics. The
map f we consider in equation (3) depends on k ∈ N and on the functions E : S 1 → S 1 ,
τ : S 1 → R. To emphasize this dependence, we denote f(E,τ ) . The transfer operator (7) is
also denoted by F̂(E,τ ) .
In this appendix we characterize an equivalence class of functions (E, τ ) such that in a
given equivalence class the maps f(E,τ ) are C ∞ conjugated together, the transfer operators
F̂(E,τ ) are also conjugated and the resonances spectrum are therefore the same.
Let η : S 1 → R be a smooth function. Let us consider the map T : S 1 × S 1 → S 1 × S 1
defined by


1
T (x, s) = x, s + η(x) .
2π
Then using (3) one obtains that


1
(T −1 ◦ f(E,τ ) ◦ T )(x, s) = E(x), s + (τ (x) + η(x) − η(E(x))) .
2π
Therefore
(T −1 ◦ f(E,τ ) ◦ T ) = f(E,ζ ) ,
i.e. f(E,ζ ) ∼ f(E,τ ) , with
ζ = τ + (η − η ◦ E).
The function τ has been modified by a ‘co-boundary term’ [KH95, p 100]. The function ζ is
said to be cohomologous to τ .
Lemma 16. With (7) we also obtain that the transfer operator F̂(E,ζ ) of f(E,ζ ) on C ∞ (S 1 ) is
given by
F̂(E,ζ ) = χ̂ F̂(E,τ ) χ̂ −1 (59)
with the operator χ̂ : C ∞ (S 1 ) → C ∞ (S 1 ) defined by
(χ̂ ϕ)(x) = eiνη(x) ϕ(x).

Proof. (χ̂ F̂(E,τ ) χ̂ −1 ϕ)(x) = (ϕ(E(x))e−iνη(E(x)) )eiντ (x) eiνη(x) = (F̂(E,ζ ) ϕ)(x). 
The conjugation (59) immediately implies that F̂(E,ζ ) and F̂(E,τ ) have the same spectrum
of Ruelle resonances.
Observe that χ̂ is a FIO whose associated canonical map on T ∗ S 1 ≡ S 1 × R is given by
(ν  1 is considered as a semiclassical parameter):


dη
χ : (x, ξ ) ∈ (S × R) → x, ξ +
1
∈ (S 1 × R).
dx
Therefore at the level of canonical maps on T ∗ S 1 :
F(E,ζ ) = χ ◦ F(E,τ ) ◦ χ −1 . (60)
The conjugation (60) implies in particular that the corresponding trapped sets (43) are
related by
K(E,ζ ) = χ (K(E,τ ) ).
1494 F Faure

Appendix B. Description of the trapped set

In this section we provide further description of the trapped set K defined in equation (43) as
well as the dynamics of the canonical map F restricted on it.

Appendix B.1. Dynamics on the cover R2

The dynamics of F on the cylinder T ∗ S 1 = S 1 × R has been defined in equation (38). This is
a multivalued map. It is convenient to consider the lifted dynamics on the cover R2 which is a
diffeomorphism given by

x → x
= E −1 (x),
F̃ : dτ
(61)
ξ → ξ
= E
(x
)ξ + (x ),
dx
where E = kg : R → R is map (1) lifted on R. It is invertible from (2). Let us suppose for
simplicity that E(0) = 0.
One easily establishes the following properties of the map F̃ , illustrated in figure 6:
• The point


τ
(0)
I := (0, ξI ) := 0, −

(E (0) − 1)
is the unique fixed point of F̃ . It is hyperbolic with unstable manifold
Wu = {(0, ξ ), ξ ∈ R}
and stable manifold
Ws = {(x, S(x)), x ∈ R}, (62)
where the C ∞ function S(x) is defined by the following co-homological equation, deduced
directly from (61)
S(E −1 (x)) = E
(E −1 (x))S(x) + τ
(E −1 (x)), S(0) = ξI .
This gives
1
S(x) = (S(E −1 (x)) − τ
(E −1 (x)))
E
(E −1 (x))
and recursively we deduce that
∞
 1
S(x) = − τ
(E (−p) x), (63)
p=1
E
(−p) (x)

where
−1
x(−p) := E (−p) (x) := (E . . ◦ E −1)(x)
 ◦ . (64)
p

and
E
(−p) (x) := E
(x−p ) . . . E
(x−2 )E
(x−1 ) (65)
is the product of derivatives. In the case of E(x) = 2x, one obtains simply
1
 x 
∞
S(x) = − τ . (66)
p=1
2p 2p
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1495

Figure 6. The fixed point I = (0, ξ0 ), the stable manifold Ws and unstable manifold Wu of the
lifted map F̃ , equation (61), in the example E(x) = 2x, τ (x) = cos(2π x).

• If P : (x, ξ ) ∈ R2 → (x mod 1, ξ ) ∈ S 1 ×R ≡ T ∗ S 1 denotes the projection, then trapped

set K, defined in equation (43) is obtained by wrapping the stable manifold around the
cylinder and taking the closure:

K = P (Ws ) (67)

Compare figures 6 and 4.

• If X0 = (x0 , ξ0 ) ∈ R2 is an initial point on the plane, and P (X0 ) denotes its image on
the cylinder, then at time n ∈ N, the k n evolutions of the point P (X0 ) under the map F n
are the images of the evolutions F̃ n (Xk ) of the translated points Xp = X0 + (p, 0), with
p = 0 → k n − 1:

F n (P (X0 )) = {P (F̃ n (Xp )), Xp = X0 + (p, 0), p ∈ {0, . . . , k n − 1}}

and more precisely, using notation of equation (39) for these points, one has the relation:

Fεn (P (X0 )) = P (F̃ n (Xp )), (68)

where ε is the number p written in base k:

ε = εn−1 . . . ε1 ε0 = pbase k ∈ {0, . . . , k − 1}n

Figure 7 illustrates this correspondence.

• For an initial point X0 = (x0 , ξ0 ) ∈ R2 , then Xn = (xn , ξn ) = F̃ n (X0 ) satisfies

xn = E (−n) (x0 ), ξn − S(xn ) = (E

(−n) (x0 ))(ξ0 − S(x0 )) (69)

with E (−n) (x), E

(−n) (x) given by (64) and (65). Hence

|ξn − S(xn )|
Emin

n
|ξ0 − S(x0 )|.

This last inequality describes how fast the trajectories above or below the separatrix Ws
escape towards infinity in figure 6.
1496 F Faure

Figure 7. This picture shows how the dynamics of a point X = P (X0 ) ∈ S 1 × R under the map
F is related by equation (68) to the dynamics of its lifted images Xk = X0 + (k, 0) under F̃ on the
cover R2 .

Appendix B.2. Partially captive property

Here we rephrase the property of partial captivity, definition 15, in terms of a property on the
separatrix function S(x) defined in equation (62) and given in equation (63).
Proposition 17. For n ∈ N, and R̃ > 0, let
 
R̃
ÑR̃ (n) = max
p ∈ {0, . . . , k − 1}, |ξ − S(x + p)| 
(−n)
n
. (70)
(x,ξ )∈R2 E (x + p)
Then the map F is partially captive (see definition p 1489) if and only if
log ÑR̃ (n)
lim =0 (71)
n→∞ n
for every R̃.

Proof. From (44) and using (68) and (69) one obtains
N (n) = max
{Fεn ((x, ξ )) ∈ Z , ε ∈ {0, . . . , k − 1}n }
(x,ξ )
= max
{|ξn,p |  R, p ∈ {0, . . . , k n − 1}}
(x,ξ )

n
with (xn,p , ξn,p ) := F̃ ((x + p, ξ )) given by
xn,p = E (−n) (x + p)
and
ξn,p = S(xn,p ) + (E
(−n) (x + p))(ξ − S(x + p)).
Therefore
S(xn,p ) R
|ξn,p |  R ⇔ | + ξ − S(x + p)| 
(−n) .
E
(−n) (x + p) E (x + p)
Semiclassical origin of the spectral gap for transfer operators of a partially expanding map 1497

Figure 8. This picture represents the set Kxc ⊂ C defined by equation (72). The
trapped set K at position x is obtained by the projection on the imaginary axis Kx =
(Kxc ). In the supplementary data (available at stacks.iop.org/Non/24/1473/mmedia or
www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/∼faure/articles/09 html partially expanding maps) one can observe
the motion of the fractal Kxc as x ∈ R increases smoothly.

But S is a bound function on R, |S(x)|  Smax . Therefore the last equation is equivalent
to |ξ − S(x + p)|  E
(−n)R̃(x+p) with some R̃ > 0, and conversely. This implies that (71) is
equivalent to (45). 

Appendix B.3. Fractal aspect of the trapped set

The characterization equation (70) concerns the discrete set of points S(x + m), m ∈ Z. From
equation (67) these points are the slice of the trapped set K = ∪x∈S 1 Kx :
Kx = {S(x + m), m ∈ Z}.
Since we present here merely an observation and not a proof, we consider, for simplicity,
the simple model with E(x) = 2x, and τ (x) = cos(2π x). From equation (66), these points
are given by
∞

 ∞

2π 2π 2π i2π
S(x + m) = sin (x + m) =  exp (x + m) .
p=1
2p 2p p=1
2p 2p
Therefore, the slice Kx is the projection on the imaginary axis of the following set:
Kxc = {S c (x + m), m ∈ Z}, (72)
∞
 2π i2π 1p (x+m)
S c (x + m) = e 2 .
p=1
2p

In figure 8 we observe that Kxc is a fractal set. (a proof of this would require the theory of
‘iterated function systems’ [Fal97]). Compare figures 8 with 4.

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