Dynamics of low-degree rational inner skew-products on $mathbb{T}^2$

We examine iteration of certain skew-products on the bidisk whose components are rational inner functions, with emphasis on simple maps of the form $Phi(z_1,z_2) = (phi(z_1,z_2), z_2)$. If $phi$ has degree $1$ in the first variable, the dynamics on each horizontal fiber can be described in terms of Mobius transformations but the global dynamics on the $2$-torus exhibit some complexity, encoded in terms of certain $mathbb{T}^2$-symmetric polynomials. We describe the dynamical behavior of such mappings $Phi$ and give criteria for different configurations of fixed point curves and rotation belts in terms of zeros of a related one-variable polynomial.