On the dimension of the space of harmonic functions on transitive shift spaces

Abstract

In this paper, we show a new relation between phase transition in Statistical Mechanics and the dimension of the space of harmonic functions (SHF) for a transfer operator. This is accomplished by extending the classical Ruelle-Perron-Frobenius theory to the realm of low regular potentials defined on either finite or infinite (uncountable) alphabets. We also give an example of a potential having a phase transition where the Perron-Frobenius eigenvector space has dimension two. We discuss entropy and equilibrium states, in this general setting, and show that if the SHF is non-trivial, then the associated equilibrium states have full support. We also obtain a weak invariance principle in cases where the spectral gap property is absent. As a consequence, a functional central limit theorem for non-local observables of the Dyson model is obtained.