Mixing on Rank-One Transformations

Abstract

We prove that mixing on rank-one transformations is equivalent to the spacer sequence being slice-ergodic. Slice-ergodicity, introduced in this paper, generalizes the notion of ergodic sequence to the uniform convergence of ergodic averages (as in the mean ergodic theorem) over subsequences of partial sums. We show that polynomial staircase transformations satisfy this condition and therefore are mixing.