Unstable entropies and variational principle for partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms

Abstract

We study entropies caused by the unstable part of partially hyperbolic systems. We define unstable metric entropy and unstable topological entropy, and establish a variational principle for partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms, which states that the unstable topological entropy is the supremum of the unstable metric entropy taken over all invariant measures. The unstable metric entropy for an invariant measure is defined as a conditional entropy along unstable manifolds, and it turns out to be the same as that given by Ledrappier–Young, though we do not use increasing partitions. The unstable topological entropy is defined equivalently via separated sets, spanning sets and open covers along a piece of unstable leaf, and it coincides with the unstable volume growth along unstable foliation. We also obtain some properties for the unstable metric entropy such as affineness, upper semi-continuity and a version of Shannon–McMillan–Breiman theorem.