In
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, the base flow of a
random dynamical system
In the mathematical field of dynamical systems, a random dynamical system is a dynamical system in which the equations of motion have an element of randomness to them. Random dynamical systems are characterized by a state space ''S'', a set of ma ...
is the
dynamical system
In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a ...
defined on the "noise"
probability space that describes how to "fast forward" or "rewind" the noise when one wishes to change the time at which one "starts" the random dynamical system.
Definition
In the definition of a random dynamical system, one is given a family of maps
on a probability space
. The
measure-preserving dynamical system is known as the base flow of the random dynamical system. The maps
are often known as shift maps since they "shift" time. The base flow is often
ergodic
In mathematics, ergodicity expresses the idea that a point of a moving system, either a dynamical system or a stochastic process, will eventually visit all parts of the space that the system moves in, in a uniform and random sense. This implies tha ...
.
The parameter
may be chosen to run over
*
(a two-sided continuous-time dynamical system);
*
(a one-sided continuous-time dynamical system);
*
(a two-sided discrete-time dynamical system);
*
(a one-sided discrete-time dynamical system).
Each map
is required
* to be a
-measurable function: for all
,
* to preserve the measure
: for all
,
.
Furthermore, as a family, the maps
satisfy the relations
*
, the
identity function
Graph of the identity function on the real numbers
In mathematics, an identity function, also called an identity relation, identity map or identity transformation, is a function that always returns the value that was used as its argument, un ...
on
;
*
for all
and
for which the three maps in this expression are defined. In particular,
if
exists.
In other words, the maps
form a
commutative monoid
In abstract algebra, a branch of mathematics, a monoid is a set equipped with an associative binary operation and an identity element. For example, the nonnegative integers with addition form a monoid, the identity element being 0.
Monoids ...
(in the cases
and