The Multiplicative Ergodic Theorem is a powerful tool for studying certain types of dynamical systems, involving real matrix cocycles. It gives a block diagonalization of these cocycles, according to the Lyapunov exponents. We ask if it is always possible to refine the diagonalization to a block upper-triangularization, and if not over the real numbers, then over the complex numbers. After building up to the posing of the question, we prove that there are counterexamples to this statement, and give concrete examples of matrix cocycles which cannot be block upper-triangularized. / Graduate / 0405 / jahoran@uvic.ca

This thesis consists of five articles mainly devoted to problems in dynamical systems and ergodic theory. We consider non-uniformly hyperbolic two dimensional systems and limit distributions of point measures which are absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure. Let $f_{a_0}(x)=a_0-x^2$ be a quadratic map where the parameter $a_0\in(1,2)$ is chosen such that the critical point $0$ is pre-periodic (but not periodic). In Papers A and B we study skew-products $(\th,x)\mapsto F(\th,x)=(g(\th),f_{a_0}(x)+\al s(\th))$, $(\th,x)\in S^1\times\real$. The functions $g:S^1\to S^1$ and $s:S^1\to[-1,1]$ are the base dynamics and the coupling functions, respectively, and $\al$ is a small, positive constant. Such quadratic skew-products are also called Viana maps. In Papers A and B we show for several choices of the base dynamics and the coupling function that the map $F$ has two positive Lyapunov exponents and for some cases we further show that $F$ admits also an absolutely continuous invariant probability measure. In Paper C we consider certain Bernoulli convolutions. By showing that a specific transversality property is satisfied, we deduce absolute continuity of the to these Bernoulli convolutions associated distributions. In Papers D and E we consider sequences of real numbers in the unit interval and study how they are distributed. The sequences in Paper D are given by the forward iterations of a point $x\in[0,1]$ under a piecewise expanding map $T_a:[0,1]\to[0,1]$ depending on a parameter $a$ contained in an interval $I$. Under the assumption that each $T_a$ admits a unique absolutely continuous invariant probability measure $\mu_a$ and that some technical conditions are satisfied, we show that the distribution of the forward orbit $T_a^j(x)$, $j\ge1$, is described by the distribution $\mu_a$ for Lebesgue almost every parameter $a\in I$. In Paper E we apply the ideas in Paper D to certain sequences which are equidistributed in the unit interval and give a geometrical proof of an old result by Koksma.

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