Rotation number of 2-interval piecewise affine maps

José Pedro Gaivao, Michel Laurent, Arnaldo Nogueira

Published 2022-12-21Version 1

We study maps of the unit interval whose graph is made up of two increasing segments and which are injective in an extended sense. Such maps $f_{\p}$ are parametrized by a quintuple $\p$ of real numbers satisfying inequations. Viewing $f_{\p}$ as a circle map, we show that it has a rotation number $\rho(f_{\p})$ and we compute $\rho(f_{\p})$ as a function of $\p$ in terms of Hecke-Mahler series. As a corollary, we prove that $\rho(f_{\p})$ is a rational number when the components of $\p$ are algebraic numbers.