Published July 24, 2026 | Version v1

Critical Invariant Polygons and the Farey--Ito Boundary of Stochastic Spectra: Contact Return Normal Forms, Projective Holonomy, and the Karpelevi\v{c}--Ito Theorem

  • 1. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  • 2. Harvard University

Description

Let $T$ be an orientation-preserving real-linear contraction of an oriented plane with nonreal eigenvalues, and let its polygonal complexity be the least number of vertices of a nondegenerate convex polygon $P$ satisfying $TP\subseteq P$. We first develop an intrinsic contact theory for radially critical maps. Hereditary saturation, one-sided contact selection, exact contact mutations, a finite cyclic reduction, and the unimodular lattice sail lead to a contact-return normal form and a projective no-skipping principle. In an adapted complex coordinate, the resulting monodromy yields a heterogeneous Ito product and an exact lifted phase identity carried by Farey neighbors. We then apply this structure to determine, for every $n$, the union $\Theta_n$ of the spectra of all real row-stochastic $n\times n$ matrices. A strictly convex log-sine potential equalizes the monodromy factors and gives the sharp radial equation. Sparse stochastic matrices attain every equality point, while scalar Farey refinement proves nesting from order $n-1$ to order $n$. Together with radial filling and the unit-circle analysis, this establishes the full Farey--Ito description of the Karpelevi\v{c} region from critical invariant polygons.

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