250105 VO Ergodic Theory (2021W)

Ergodic Theory is a multi-faceted field of mathematics. The goal of this course is to explain how it allows us to understand (important features of) the long-term behavior of dynamical systems which are "chaotic" in that detailed predictions are impossible (for mathematical reasons). This is a "quantitative" (measure-theoretic) study of dynamical systems complementing the "qualitative" (topological) viewpoint often discussed in courses on differential equations. While everything will be illustrated in the context of simple prototypical examples, the basic theory takes place in an abstract measure-theoretic setup, and a background in (or the willingness to learn some) functional analysis and probability theory is also useful.