In this paper, we consider random dynamical systems formed by concatenating maps acting on the unit interval $[0,1]$ in an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) fashion. Considered as a stationary Markov process, the random dynamical system possesses a unique stationary measure $\nu $. We consider a class of non-square-integrable observables $\phi $, mostly of form $\phi (x)=d(x,x_0)^{-{1}/{\alpha }}$, where $x_0$ is a non-recurrent point (in particular a non-periodic point) satisfying some other genericity conditions and, more generally, regularly varying observables with index $\alpha \in (0,2)$. The two types of maps we concatenate are a class of piecewise $C^2$ expanding maps and a class of intermittent maps possessing an indifferent fixed point at the origin. Under conditions on the dynamics and $\alpha $, we establish Poisson limit laws, convergence of scaled Birkhoff sums to a stable limit law, and functional stable limit laws in both the annealed and quenched case. The scaling constants for the limit laws for almost every quenched realization are the same as those of the annealed case and determined by $\nu $. This is in contrast to the scalings in quenched central limit theorems where the centering constants depend in a critical way upon the realization and are not the same for almost every realization.

We introduce the notions of returns and well-aligned sets for closed relations on compact metric spaces and then use them to obtain non-trivial sufficient conditions for such a relation to have non-zero entropy. In addition, we give a characterization of finite relations with non-zero entropy in terms of Li–Yorke and DC2 chaos.

Based on previous work of the authors, to any S-adic development of a subshift X a ‘directive sequence’ of commutative diagrams is associated, which consists at every level $n \geq 0$ of the measure cone and the letter frequency cone of the level subshift $X_n$ associated canonically to the given S-adic development. The issuing rich picture enables one to deduce results about X with unexpected directness. For instance, we exhibit a large class of minimal subshifts with entropy zero that all have infinitely many ergodic probability measures. As a side result, we also exhibit, for any integer $d \geq 2$, an S-adic development of a minimal, aperiodic, uniquely ergodic subshift X, where all level alphabets $\mathcal A_n$ have cardinality $d,$ while none of the $d-2$ bottom level morphisms is recognizable in its level subshift $X_n \subseteq \mathcal A_n^{\mathbb {Z}}$.

We obtain the following embedding theorem for symbolic dynamical systems. Let G be a countable amenable group with the comparison property. Let X be a strongly aperiodic subshift over G. Let Y be a strongly irreducible shift of finite type over G that has no global period, meaning that the shift action is faithful on Y. If the topological entropy of X is strictly less than that of Y and Y contains at least one factor of X, then X embeds into Y. This result partially extends the classical result of Krieger when $G = \mathbb {Z}$ and the results of Lightwood when $G = \mathbb {Z}^d$ for $d \geq 2$. The proof relies on recent developments in the theory of tilings and quasi-tilings of amenable groups.

Let G be a countable residually finite group (for instance, ${\mathbb F}_2$) and let $\overleftarrow {G}$ be a totally disconnected metric compactification of G equipped with the action of G by left multiplication. For every $r\geq 1$, we construct a Toeplitz G-subshift $(X,\sigma ,G)$, which is an almost one-to-one extension of $\overleftarrow {G}$, having r ergodic measures $\nu _1, \ldots ,\nu _r$ such that for every $1\leq i\leq r$, the measure-theoretic dynamical system $(X,\sigma ,G,\nu _i)$ is isomorphic to $\overleftarrow {G}$ endowed with the Haar measure. The construction we propose is general (for amenable and non-amenable residually finite groups); however, we point out the differences and obstructions that could appear when the acting group is not amenable.

Using Patterson–Sullivan measures, we investigate growth problems for groups acting on a metric space with a strongly contracting element.

Let $ G $ be a connected semisimple real algebraic group and $\Gamma <G$ be a Zariski dense discrete subgroup. Let N denote a maximal horospherical subgroup of G, and $P=MAN$ the minimal parabolic subgroup which is the normalizer of N. Let $\mathcal E$ denote the unique P-minimal subset of $\Gamma \backslash G$ and let $\mathcal E_0$ be a $P^\circ $-minimal subset. We consider a notion of a horospherical limit point in the Furstenberg boundary $ G/P $ and show that the following are equivalent for any $[g]\in \mathcal E_0$:

1. (1) $gP\in G/P$ is a horospherical limit point;

2. (2) $[g]NM$ is dense in $\mathcal E$;

3. (3) $[g]N$ is dense in $\mathcal E_0$.

The equivalence of items (1) and (2) is due to Dal’bo in the rank one case. We also show that unlike convex cocompact groups of rank one Lie groups, the $NM$-minimality of $\mathcal E$ does not hold in a general Anosov homogeneous space.

We apply the Evans–Kishimoto intertwining argument to the classification of actions of discrete amenable groups into the normalizer of a full group of an ergodic transformation. Our proof does not depend on the types of ergodic transformations.

We prove a multidimensional conformal version of the scale recurrence lemma of Moreira and Yoccoz [Stable intersections of regular Cantor sets with large Hausdorff dimensions. Ann. of Math. (2) 154(1) (2001), 45–96] for Cantor sets in the complex plane. We then use this new recurrence lemma, together with Moreira’s ideas in [Geometric properties of images of Cartesian products of regular Cantor sets by differentiable real maps. Math. Z. 303 (2023), 3], to prove that under the right hypothesis for the Cantor sets $K_1,\ldots ,K_n$ and the function $h:\mathbb {C}^{n}\to \mathbb {R}^{l}$, the following formula holds:

$$ \begin{align*}HD(h(K_1\times K_2 \times \cdots\times K_n))=\min \{l,HD(K_1)+\cdots+HD(K_n)\}.\end{align*} $$

In this paper, we consider random iterations of polynomial maps $z^{2} + c_{n}$, where $c_{n}$ are complex-valued independent random variables following the uniform distribution on the closed disk with center c and radius r. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we study the (dis)connectedness of random Julia sets. Here, we reveal the relationships between the bifurcation radius and connectedness of random Julia sets. Second, we investigate the bifurcation of our random iterations and give quantitative estimates of bifurcation parameters. In particular, we prove that for the central parameter $c = -1$, almost every random Julia set is totally disconnected with much smaller radial parameters r than expected. We also introduce several open questions worth discussing.