# Irrational rotation

In the mathematical theory of dynamical systems, an irrational rotation is a map

${\displaystyle T_{\theta }:[0,1]\rightarrow [0,1],\quad T_{\theta }(x)\triangleq x+\theta \mod 1}$

where θ is an irrational number. Under the identification of a circle with R/Z, or with the interval [0, 1] with the boundary points glued together, this map becomes a rotation of a circle by a proportion θ of a full revolution (i.e., an angle of 2πθ radians). Since θ is irrational, the rotation has infinite order in the circle group and the map Tθ has no periodic orbits.

Alternatively, we can use multiplicative notation for an irrational rotation by introducing the map

${\displaystyle T_{\theta }:S^{1}\to S^{1},\quad \quad \quad T_{\theta }(x)=xe^{2\pi i\theta }}$

The relationship between the additive and multiplicative notations is the group isomorphism

${\displaystyle \phi :([0,1],+)\to (S^{1},\cdot )\quad \phi (x)=xe^{2\pi i\theta }}$.

It can be shown that φ is an isometry.

There is a strong distinction in circle rotations that depends on whether θ is rational or irrational. Rational rotations are less interesting examples of dynamical systems due to the fact that if ${\displaystyle \theta ={\frac {a}{b}}}$ and ${\displaystyle \gcd(a,b)=1}$, then ${\displaystyle T_{\theta }^{b}(x)=x}$ when ${\displaystyle x\in [0,1]}$. It can also be shown that ${\displaystyle T_{\theta }^{i}(x)\neq x}$ when ${\displaystyle 1\leq i.

## Significance

Irrational rotations form a fundamental example in the theory of dynamical systems. According to the Denjoy theorem, every orientation-preserving C2-diffeomorphism of the circle with an irrational rotation number θ is topologically conjugate to Tθ. An irrational rotation is a measure-preserving ergodic transformation, but it is not mixing. The Poincaré map for the dynamical system associated with the Kronecker foliation on a torus with angle θ is the irrational rotation by θ. C*-algebras associated with irrational rotations, known as irrational rotation algebras, have been extensively studied.

## Applications

• Skew Products over Rotations of the Circle: In 1969[2] William Veech constructed examples of minimalTemplate:Disambiguation needed and not uniquely ergodic dynamical systems as follows: "Take two copies of the unit circle and mark off segment J of length 2πα in the counterclockwise direction on each one with endpoint at 0. Now take θ irrational and consider the following dynamical system. Start with a point p, say in the first circle. Rotate counterclockwise by 2πθ until the first time the orbit lands in J; then switch to the corresponding point in the second circle, rotate by 2πθ until the first time the point lands in J; switch back to the first circle and so forth. Veech showed that if θ is irrational, then there exists irrational α for which this system is minimal and the Lebesgue measure is not uniquely ergodic."[3]