About this course


 A "dynamical system" is a pair (X,T) where X is a
set equipped with some structure (e.g. a topological space, a
measure space or a differentiable manifold) and T:X -->X is a
map preserving the structure on X, i.e. T continuous if X is a
topological space, T measurable and "non-singular" (preserving
measure zero) if X is a measure space and T a differentiable
map if X is a differentiable manifold. In this course the additional structure  
will (mainly) be topological.

 Usually (but not always), we are interested in the "asymptotic
behavior" of the iterates of T.

The theory of dynamical systems goes back (at least) to Newton
and is widely used to model naturally (and not so naturally)
occurring phenomena.