Counting closed geodesics on rank-one manifolds without focal points

We consider suspension flows with continuous roof function over the full shift $$\Sigma $$ on a finite alphabet. For any positive entropy subshift of finite type $$Y \subset \Sigma $$, we explicitly construct a roof function such that the measure(s) of maximal entropy for the suspension flow over $$\Sigma $$ are exactly the lifts of the measure(s) of maximal entropy for Y. In the case when Y is transitive, this gives a unique measure of maximal entropy for the flow which is not fully supported. If Y has more than one transitive component, all with the same entropy, this gives explicit examples of suspension flows over the full shift with multiple measures of maximal entropy. This contrasts with the case of a Holder continuous roof function where it is well known the measure of maximal entropy is unique and fully supported.

We study suspension flows defined over sub-shifts of finite type with continuous roof functions. We prove the existence of suspension flows with uncountably many ergodic measures of maximal entropy. More generally, we prove that any suspension flow defined over a sub-shift of finite type can be perturbed (by an arbitrarily small perturbation) so that the resulting flow has uncountably many ergodic measures of maximal entropy, and that the same can be arranged so that the new flow has a unique measure of maximal entropy.

Uniqueness of the measure of maximal entropy for geodesic flows on certain manifolds without conjugate points

For a geometrically finite Kleinian group Γ, the Bowen–Margulis–Sullivan measure is finite and is the unique measure of maximal entropy for the geodesic flow, as shown by Sullivan and Otal–Peigné respectively. Moreover, it is strongly mixing by a result of Babillot. We obtain a higher-rank analogue of this theorem. Given a relatively Anosov subgroup Γ of a semisimple real algebraic group, there is a family of flow spaces parameterized by linear forms tangent to the growth indicator. We construct a reparameterization of each flow space by the geodesic flow on the Groves–Manning space of Γ which exhibits exponential expansion along unstable foliations. Using this reparameterization, we prove that the Bowen–Margulis–Sullivan measure of each flow space is finite and is the unique measure of maximal entropy. Moreover, it is strongly mixing.

For any fixed alphabet A, the maximum topological entropy of a Z^d subshift with alphabet A is obviously log |A|. We study the class of nearest neighbor Z^d shifts of finite type which have topological entropy very close to this maximum, and show that they have many useful properties. Specifically, we prove that for any d, there exists beta_d such that for any nearest neighbor Z^d shift of finite type X with alphabet A for which log |A| - h(X) < beta_d, X has a unique measure of maximal entropy. Our values of beta_d decay polynomially (like O(d^(-17))), and we prove that the sequence must decay at least polynomially (like d^(-0.25+o(1))). We also show some other desirable properties for such X, for instance that the topological entropy of X is computable and that the unique m.m.e. is isomorphic to a Bernoulli measure. Though there are other sufficient conditions in the literature which guarantee a unique measure of maximal entropy for Z^d shifts of finite type, this is (to our knowledge) the first such condition which makes no reference to the specific adjacency rules of individual letters of the alphabet.

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>For a class of piecewise hyperbolic maps in two dimensions, we propose a combinatorial definition of topological entropy by counting the maximal, open, connected components of the phase space on which iterates of the map are smooth. We prove that this quantity dominates the measure theoretic entropies of all invariant probability measures of the system, and then construct an invariant measure whose entropy equals the proposed topological entropy. We prove that our measure is the unique measure of maximal entropy, that it is ergodic, gives positive measure to every open set, and has exponential decay of correlations against Hölder continuous functions. As a consequence, we also prove a lower bound on the rate of growth of periodic orbits. The main tool used in the paper is the construction of anisotropic Banach spaces of distributions on which the relevant weighted transfer operator has a spectral gap. We then construct our measure of maximal entropy by taking a product of left and right maximal eigenvectors of this operator.

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>Let <inline-formula><tex-math id="M1">\begin{document}$ X $\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula> be a compact, geodesically complete, locally CAT(0) space such that the universal cover admits a rank one axis. We prove the Bowen-Margulis measure on the space of geodesics is the unique measure of maximal entropy for the geodesic flow, which has topological entropy equal to the critical exponent of the Poincaré series.

We show that a class of robustly transitive diffeomorphisms originally described by Mañé are intrinsically ergodic. More precisely, we obtain an open set of diffeomorphisms which fail to be uniformly hyperbolic and structurally stable, but nevertheless have the following stability with respect to their entropy. Their topological entropy is constant and they each have a unique measure of maximal entropy with respect to which periodic orbits are equidistributed. Moreover, equipped with their respective measure of maximal entropy, these diffeomorphisms are pairwise isomorphic. We show that the method applies to several classes of systems which are similarly derived from Anosov, i.e. produced by an isotopy from an Anosov system, namely, a mixed Mañé example and one obtained through a Hopf bifurcation.

Let Γ be a nonelementary Kleinian group acting on a Cartan-Hadamard manifold $\tilde{X}$; denote by Λ(Γ) the nonwandering set of the geodesic flow (φt) acting on the unit tangent bundle T1($\tilde{X}$/Γ). When Γ is convex cocompact (i.e., Λ(Γ) is compact), the restriction of (φt) to Λ(Γ) is an Axiom A flow: therefore, by a theorem of Bowen and Ruelle, there exists a unique invariant measure on Λ(Γ) which has maximal entropy. In this paper, we study the case of an arbitrary Kleinian group Γ. We show that there exists a measure of maximal entropy for the restriction of(φt) to Λ(Γ) if and only if the Patterson-Sullivan measure is finite; furthermore when this measure is finite, it is the unique measure of maximal entropy. By a theorem of Handel and Kitchens, the supremum of the measure-theoretic entropies equals the infimum of the entropies of the distances d on Λ(X); when Γ is geometrically finite, we show that this infimum is achieved by the Riemannian distance d on Λ(X).

Bowen showed that a continuous expansive map with specification has a unique measure of maximal entropy. We show that the conclusion remains true under weaker non-uniform versions of these hypotheses. To this end, we introduce the notions of obstructions to expansivity and specification, and show that if the entropy of such obstructions is smaller than the topological entropy of the map, then there is a unique measure of maximal entropy.

Subshifts of deterministic substitutions are ubiquitous objects in dynamical systems and aperiodic order (the mathematical theory of quasicrystals). Two of their most striking features are that they have low complexity (zero topological entropy) and are uniquely ergodic. Random substitutions are a generalisation of deterministic substitutions where the substituted image of a letter is determined by a Markov process. In stark contrast to their deterministic counterparts, subshifts of random substitutions often have positive topological entropy, and support uncountably many ergodic measures. The underlying Markov process singles out one of the ergodic measures, called the frequency measure. Here, we develop new techniques for computing and studying the entropy of these frequency measures. As an application of our results, we obtain closed form formulas for the entropy of frequency measures for a wide range of random substitution subshifts and show that in many cases there exists a frequency measure of maximal entropy. Further, for a class of random substitution subshifts, we prove that this measure is the unique measure of maximal entropy. These subshifts do not satisfy Bowen’s specification property or the weaker specification property of Climenhaga and Thompson and hence provide an interesting new class of intrinsically ergodic subshifts.

The squarefree flow is a natural dynamical system whose topological and ergodic properties are closely linked to the behavior of squarefree numbers. We prove that the squarefree flow carries a unique measure of maximal entropy and express this measure explicitly in terms of a skew-product of a Kronecker and a Bernoulli system. Using this characterization and a number-theoretic argument, we then show that the unique maximum entropy measure fails to possess the Gibbs property.

This paper concerns the dynamics of polynomial automorphisms of ${\bf C}^2$. One can associate to such an automorphism two currents $\mu^\pm$ and the equilibrium measure $\mu=\mu^+\wedge\mu^-$. In this paper we study some geometric and dynamical properties of these objects. First, we characterize $\mu$ as the unique measure of maximal entropy. Then we show that the measure $\mu$ has a local product structure and that the currents $\mu^\pm$ have a laminar structure. This allows us to deduce information about periodic points and heteroclinic intersections. For example, we prove that the support of $\mu$ coincides with the closure of the set of saddle points. The methods used combine the pluripotential theory with the theory of non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems.

It has recently been shown that a strongly irreducible subshift of finite type in two or more dimensions may have more than one measure of maximal entropy. In this paper we obtain some results on when (i.e. for what kinds of subshifts of finite type) this happens, and when it does not. In particular, we show that the parameter of a certain subshift of finite type introduced by Burton and Steif has a critical value, below which we have a unique measure of maximal entropy, and above which we have non-uniqueness.

In this paper we prove that for sufficiently large parameters the standard map has a unique measure of maximal entropy (m.m.e.). Moreover, we prove: the m.m.e. is Bernoulli, and the periodic points with Lyapunov exponents bounded away from zero equidistribute with respect to the m.m.e.We prove some estimates regarding the Hausdorff dimension of the m.m.e. and about the density of the support of the measure on the manifold. For a generic large parameter, we prove that the support of the m.m.e. has Hausdorff dimension 2. We also obtain the C^2 -robustness of several of these properties.