On the Periodic Orbits of the Dual Logarithmic Derivative Operator

Abstract

We study the periodic behaviour of the dual logarithmic derivative operator $\mathcal{A}[f]=\mathrm{d}\ln f/\mathrm{d}\ln x$ in a complex analytic setting. We show that $\mathcal{A}$ admits genuinely nondegenerate period-$2$ orbits and identify a canonical explicit example. Motivated by this, we obtain a complete classification of all nondegenerate period-$2$ solutions, which are precisely the rational pairs $(ca{x}^c/(1-a{x}^c),c/(1-a{x}^c))$ with $ac\ne 0$. We further classify all fixed points of $\mathcal{A}$, showing that every solution of $\mathcal{A}[f]=f$ has the form $f(x)=1/(a-\ln x)$. As an illustration, logistic-type functions become pre-periodic under $\mathcal{A}$ after a logarithmic change of variables, entering the period-$2$ family in one iterate. These results give an explicit description of the low-period structure of $\mathcal{A}$ and provide a tractable example of operator-induced dynamics on function spaces.