Ergodic optimization is the process of finding invariant probability measures that maximize the integral of a given function. It has been conjectured that ‘most’ functions are optimized by measures supported on a periodic orbit, and it has been proved in several separable spaces that an open and dense subset of functions is optimized by measures supported on a periodic orbit. All known positive results have been for separable spaces. We give in this paper the first positive result for a non-separable space, the space of super-continuous functions on the full shift, where the set of functions optimized by periodic orbit measures contains an open dense subset.

We study Poincaré recurrence for flows and observations of flows. For Anosov flow, we prove that the recurrence rates are linked to the local dimension of the invariant measure. More generally, we give for the recurrence rates for the observations an upper bound depending on the push-forward measure. When the flow is metrically isomorphic to a suspension flow for which the dynamic on the base is rapidly mixing, we prove the existence of a lower bound for the recurrence rates for the observations. We apply these results to the geodesic flow and we compute the recurrence rates for a particular observation of the geodesic flow, i.e. the projection on the manifold.

We extend constructions of Hahn and Katznelson [On the entropy of uniquely ergodic transformations. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.126 (1967), 335–360] and Pavlov [Some counterexamples in topological dynamics. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys.28 (2008), 1291–1322] to ℤd-actions on symbolic dynamical spaces with prescribed topological and ergodic properties. More specifically, we describe a method to build ℤd-actions which are (totally) minimal, (totally) strictly ergodic and have positive topological entropy.

The complexity function of an infinite word w on a finite alphabet A is the sequence counting, for each non-negative integer n, the number of words of length n on the alphabet A that are factors of the infinite word w. Let f be a given function with subexponential growth. The goal of this work is to estimate the generalized Hausdorff dimensions of the set of real numbers whose q-adic expansion has a complexity function bounded by f and the set of real numbers whose continued fraction expansion is bounded by q and has a complexity function bounded by f.

Burguet [A direct proof of the tail variational principle and its extension to maps. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys.29 (2009), 357–369] presented a direct proof of the variational principle of tail entropy and extended Downarowicz’s results to a non-invertible case. This paper defines and discusses tail pressure, which is an extension of tail entropy for continuous transformations. This study reveals analogs of many known results of topological pressure. Specifically, a variational principle is provided and some applications of tail pressure, such as the investigation of invariant measures and equilibrium states, are also obtained.

It is shown that if E is a subset of such that 1∈E or 2∈E then there is a mixing transformation whose set of spectral multiplicities is E.

We consider a natural class of connected, simply connected nilpotent Lie groups which contains ℝn, the group of all triangular unipotent matrices over ℝ and many of its subgroups, and is closed under direct products. If , then is a lattice subgroup of G. We prove that if and Γ is a lattice subgroup of G, then a free ergodic measure-preserving action T of G on a probability space (X,ℬ,μ)has completely positive entropy (CPE) if and only if the restriction TΓ of T to Γ has CPE. We can deduce from this the following version of a well-known conjecture in this case: the action T has CPE if and only if T is uniformly mixing. Moreover, such T has a Lebesgue spectrum with infinite multiplicity. We further consider an ergodic free action T with positive entropy and suppose TΓ is ergodic for any lattice subgroup Γ of G. This holds, in particular, if the spectrum of T does not contain a discrete component. Then we show the Pinsker algebra Π(T)of T exists and coincides with the Pinsker algebras Π(TΓ)of TΓ for any lattice subgroup Γ of G. In this case, T always has Lebesgue spectrum with infinite multiplicity on the space ℒ20(X,μ)⊖ℒ20(Π(T)) , where ℒ20(Π(T))contains all Π(T) -measurable functions from ℒ20(X,μ) . To prove these results, we use the following formula: h(T)=∣G(Γ)∣−1hK (TΓ) , where h(T)is the Ornstein–Weiss entropy of T, hK (TΓ)is a Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy of TΓ, and the number ∣G(TΓ)∣ is the Haar measure of the compact subset G(Γ)of G. In particular, h(T)=hK (TΓ1) , and hK (TΓ1)=∣G(Γ)∣−1hK (TΓ) . The last relation is an analogue of the Abramov formula for flows.

Let F be a tangent to the identity diffeomorphism in (ℂ2,0) and X its infinitesimal generator. We prove that Camacho and Sad’s formal invariant curves of X give summable formal power series, whose sums correspond to the parabolic curves found by Hakim for F and F−1.

Let ℱn be families of entire functions, holomorphically parameterized by a complex manifold M. We consider those parameters in M that correspond to non-escaping hyperbolic functions, i.e. those maps f∈ℱn for which the postsingular set P(f) is a compact subset of the Fatou set ℱ(f) of f. We prove that if ℱn→ℱ∞ in the sense of a certain dynamically sensible metric, then every non-escaping hyperbolic component in the parameter space of ℱ∞ is a kernel of a sequence of non-escaping hyperbolic components in the parameter spaces of ℱn. Parameters belonging to such a kernel do not always correspond to hyperbolic functions in ℱ∞. Nevertheless, we show that these functions must be J-stable. Using quasiconformal equivalences, we are able to construct many examples of families to which our results can be applied.

In the paper, we prove convergence of moments of all orders for Axiom A diffeomorphisms and flows. The same results hold for non-uniformly hyperbolic diffeomorphisms and flows modelled by Young towers with superpolynomial tails. For polynomial tails, we prove convergence of moments up to a certain order, and give examples where moments diverge when this order is exceeded. Non-uniformly hyperbolic systems covered by our result include Hénon-like attractors, Lorenz attractors, semidispersing billiards, finite horizon planar periodic Lorentz gases, and Pomeau–Manneville intermittency maps.

This paper is about spectral properties of transfer operators for contact Anosov flows. The main result gives the essential spectral radii of the transfer operators acting on an appropriate function space exactly and improves the previous result in Tsujii [Quasi-compactness of transfer operators for contact Anosov flows. Nonlinearity23 (2010), 1495–1545]. Also, we provide a simplified proof by using the so-called Fourier–Bros–Iagolnitzer (FBI) (or Bargmann) transform.

Berend [Multi-invariant sets on tori. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc.280(2) (1983), 509–532] obtained necessary and sufficient conditions on a ℤr-action α on a torus 𝕋d by toral automorphisms in order for every orbit to be either finite or dense. One of these conditions is that for every common eigendirection of the ℤr-action there is an element n∈ℤr such that αn expands this direction. In this paper, we investigate what happens when this condition is removed; more generally, we consider a partial orbit {αn⋅x:n∈Ω} where Ω is a set of elements which acts in an approximately isometric way on a given set of eigendirections. This analysis is used in an essential way in the work of the author with E. Lindenstrauss [Topological self-joinings of Cartan actions by toral automorphisms. Preprint, 2010] classifying topological self-joinings of maximal ℤr-actions on tori for r≥3 .

Bramson and Kalikow and Quas showed the phenomenon of non-uniqueness for g-measures in the absence of a C1 condition on g. We extend this result to show that for a sequence G=(Gn), the class of G-measures can be badly behaved in the sense of containing measures of type IIIλ for all λ in a continuous image of an Fσ set.

Recently, Buzzi [Maximal entropy measures for piecewise affine surface homeomorphisms. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys.29 (2009), 1723–1763] showed in the compact case that the entropy map f→htop(f) is lower semi-continuous for all piecewise affine surface homeomorphisms. We prove that topological entropy for Lozi maps can jump from zero to a value above 0.1203 as one crosses a particular parameter and hence it is not upper semi-continuous in general. Moreover, our results can be extended to a small neighborhood of this parameter showing the jump in the entropy occurs along a line segment in the parameter space.

We consider ℝn skew-products of a class of hyperbolic dynamical systems. It was proved by Niţică and Pollicott [Transitivity of Euclidean extensions of Anosov diffeomorphisms. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys. 25 (2005), 257–269] that for an Anosov diffeomorphism ϕ of an infranilmanifold Λ there is (subject to avoiding natural obstructions) an open and dense set f:Λ→ℝN for which the skew-product ϕf(x,v)=(ϕ(x),v+f(x)) on Λ×ℝN has a dense orbit. We prove a similar result in the context of an Axiom A hyperbolic flow on an attractor.

In this paper, we focus on the packing measures of self-similar sets. Let K be a self-similar set whose Hausdorff dimension and packing dimension equal s. We state that if K satisfies the strong open set condition with an open set 𝒪, then for each open ball B(x,r)⊂𝒪 centred in K, where 𝒫s denotes the s-dimensional packing measure. We use this inequality to obtain some precise density theorems for the packing measures of self-similar sets. These theorems can be used to compute the exact value of the s-dimensional packing measure 𝒫s (K)of K. Moreover, by using the above results, we show the continuity of the packing measure function of the attractors on the space of self-similar iterated function systems satisfying the strong separation condition. This result gives a complete answer to a question posed by Olsen in [15].

We show that among Cr extensions (r>0) of a uniformly hyperbolic dynamical system with fiber the standard real Heisenberg group ℋn of dimension 2n+1, those that avoid an obvious obstruction to topological transitivity are generically topologically transitive. Moreover, if one considers extensions with fiber a connected nilpotent Lie group with a compact commutator subgroup (for example ℋn/ℤ), among those that avoid the obvious obstruction, topological transitivity is open and dense.

An effective equidistribution with explicit constants for the isometry group of rational forms with signature (2,1) is proved. As an application we get an effective discreteness of the Markov spectrum.