We consider a subshift of finite type endowed with a Markov measure that is given by a stochastic matrix. We introduce a Markov hole determined by a finite collection of allowed words in the subshift. We first present a simple yet precise formula to compute the escape rate into the hole as the spectral radius of a perturbed stochastic matrix, where the rule of perturbation is governed by the hole. The combinatorial nature of the subshift comes to our aid in obtaining another formulation of the escape rate as the logarithm of the smallest real pole of a certain rational function, by way of recurrence relations. This proves crucial in comparing the escape rates into cylinders based at words of fixed length. Merits of both the formulas are illustrated through examples.

We introduce Feldman–Katok convergence for invariant measures of a topological dynamical system. This can be seen as a counterpart to the convergence with respect to the $\bar {f}$-metric for finite-state stationary processes (shift-invariant measures on a symbolic space). Feldman–Katok convergence is based on a dynamically defined Feldman–Katok pseudometric. This convergence is stronger than weak$^*$ convergence. We prove that Feldman–Katok convergence preserves ergodicity and makes the Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy lower semicontinuous, thereby preserving zero entropy. We apply our findings to non-hyperbolic (having at least one vanishing Lyapunov exponent) ergodic measures constructed using the GIKN method as axiomatized by Bonatti, Díaz and Gorodetski [Nonlinearity, 23 (2010), 687–705]. The GIKN method, originally introduced by Gorodetski, Ilyashenko, Kleptsyn and Nalsky [Functional Analysis and its Applications, 39 (2005), 21–30], has been widely adapted to produce non-hyperbolic ergodic measures for diffeomorphisms of compact manifolds. We prove that an ergodic measure satisfying the conditions provided by the axiomatized GIKN method is the Feldman–Katok limit of a sequence of periodic measures, which implies that it is either a periodic measure or a loosely Kronecker measure (a measure Kakutani equivalent to an aperiodic ergodic rotation on a compact group) and has zero entropy. This classifies all these measures up to Kakutani equivalence and confirms that geometric constructions of non-hyperbolic measures via periodic approximations based on the axiomatized GIKN method presented in Bonatti et al. [op. cit.] systematically produce zero-entropy systems.

Let $ ([0,1]^d,T,\mu ) $ be a measure-preserving dynamical system so that the correlations decay exponentially for Hölder continuous functions. Suppose that $ \mu $ is absolutely continuous with a density function $ h\in L^q(\mathcal L^d) $ for some $ q>1 $, where $ \mathcal L^d $ is the $ d $-dimensional Lebesgue measure. Under suitable conditions on the underlying dynamical system, we obtain a strong dynamical Borel–Cantelli lemma for recurrence: for any sequence $ \{R_n\} $ of hyperrectangles centered at the origin, with sides parallel to the axes and diameter going to $0$ as $n\to \infty $, where $ \mathbf {x}\in [0,1]^d $ and $ R_n+\mathbf {x} $ is the translation of $ R_n $. The result applies to the Gauss map, $\beta $-transformations, and expanding toral endomorphisms.

Let $f:M\to M$ be a homeomorphism over a compact Riemannian manifold, ergodic with respect to a measure $\mu $ defined on the completion of the Borel $\sigma $-algebra, and $\mathcal F$ a f-invariant one-dimensional continuous foliation of M by $C^1$-leaves. Then, if f preserves a continuous $\mathcal {F}$-arc length system, then we only have three possibilities for the conditional measures of $\mu $ along $\mathcal F$, namely: (i) they are atomic for almost every leaf; or (ii) for almost every leaf, they are equivalent to the measure $\unicode{x3bb} _x$ induced by the invariant arc-length system over $\mathcal F$; or (iii) for almost every leaf, their support is a nowhere dense, perfect subset of the leaf. Furthermore, we show that restricted to ergodic partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism with one-dimensional topological neutral center direction, we are able to eliminate the third case obtaining a dichotomy.

For upper semi-continuous potentials defined on shifts over countable alphabets, this paper ensures sufficient conditions for the existence of a maximizing measure. We resort to the concept of blur shift, introduced by T. Almeida and M. Sobottka as a compactification method for countable alphabet shifts consisting of adding new symbols given by blurred subsets of the alphabet. Our approach extends beyond the Markovian case to encompass more general countable alphabet shifts. In particular, we guarantee a convex characterization and compactness for the set of blur invariant probabilities with respect to the discontinuous shift map.

We show that for any set $A\subset {\mathbb N}$ with positive upper density and any $\ell ,m \in {\mathbb N}$, there exist an infinite set $B\subset {\mathbb N}$ and some $t\in {\mathbb N}$ so that $\{mb_1 + \ell b_2 \colon b_1,b_2\in B\ \text {and}\ b_1<b_2 \}+t \subset A,$ verifying a conjecture of Kra, Moreira, Richter and Robertson. We also consider the patterns $\{mb_1 + \ell b_2 \colon b_1,b_2\in B\ \text {and}\ b_1 \leq b_2 \}$, for infinite $B\subset {\mathbb N}$ and prove that any set $A\subset {\mathbb N}$ with lower density $\underline {\!\mathrm {d}}(A)>1/2$ contains such configurations up to a shift. We show that the value $1/2$ is optimal and obtain analogous results for values of upper density and when no shift is allowed.

We establish a polynomial ergodic theorem for actions of the affine group of a countable field K. As an application, we deduce—via a variant of Furstenberg’s correspondence principle—that for fields of characteristic zero, any ‘large’ set $E\subset K$ contains ‘many’ patterns of the form $\{p(u)+v,uv\}$, for every non-constant polynomial $p(x)\in K[x]$. Our methods are flexible enough that they allow us to recover analogous density results in the setting of finite fields and, with the aid of a finitistic variant of Bergelson’s ‘colouring trick’, show that for $r\in \mathbb N$ fixed, any r-colouring of a large enough finite field will contain monochromatic patterns of the form $\{u,p(u)+v,uv\}$. In a different direction, we obtain a double ergodic theorem for actions of the affine group of a countable field. An adaptation of the argument for affine actions of finite fields leads to a generalization of a theorem of Shkredov. Finally, to highlight the utility of the aforementioned finitistic ‘colouring trick’, we provide a conditional, elementary generalization of Green and Sanders’ $\{u,v,u+v,uv\}$ theorem.

We show the existence of large $\mathcal C^1$ open sets of area-preserving endomorphisms of the two-torus which have no dominated splitting and are non-uniformly hyperbolic, meaning that Lebesgue almost every point has a positive and a negative Lyapunov exponent. The integrated Lyapunov exponents vary continuously with the dynamics in the $\mathcal C^1$ topology and can be taken as far away from zero as desired. Explicit real analytic examples are obtained by deforming linear endomorphisms, including expanding ones. The technique works in nearly every homotopy class, and the examples are stably ergodic (in fact Bernoulli), provided that the linear map has no eigenvalue of modulus one.

We show that $\alpha $-stable Lévy motions can be simulated by any ergodic and aperiodic probability-preserving transformation. Namely we show that: for $0<\alpha <1$ and every $\alpha $-stable Lévy motion ${\mathbb {W}}$, there exists a function f whose partial sum process converges in distribution to ${\mathbb {W}}$; for $1\leq \alpha <2$ and every symmetric $\alpha $-stable Lévy motion, there exists a function f whose partial sum process converges in distribution to ${\mathbb {W}}$; for $1< \alpha <2$ and every $-1\leq \beta \leq 1$ there exists a function f whose associated time series is in the classical domain of attraction of an $S_\alpha (\ln (2), \beta ,0)$ random variable.

Using a perturbation result established by Galatolo and Lucena [Spectral gap and quantitative statistical stability for systems with contracting fibers and Lorenz-like maps. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 40(3) (2020), 1309–1360], we obtain quantitative estimates on the continuity of the invariant densities and entropies of the physical measures for some families of piecewise expanding maps. We apply these results to a family of two-dimensional tent maps.

We develop combinatorial tools to study partial rigidity within the class of minimal $\mathcal {S}$-adic subshifts. By leveraging the combinatorial data of well-chosen Kakutani–Rokhlin partitions, we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for partial rigidity. Additionally, we provide an explicit expression to compute the partial rigidity rate and an associated partial rigidity sequence. As applications, we compute the partial rigidity rate for a variety of constant length substitution subshifts, such as the Thue–Morse subshift, where we determine a partial rigidity rate of 2/3. We also exhibit non-rigid substitution subshifts with partial rigidity rates arbitrarily close to 1 and, as a consequence, using products of the aforementioned substitutions, we obtain that any number in $[0, 1]$ is the partial rigidity rate of a system.

Let $f(z)=z^2+c$ be an infinitely renormalizable quadratic polynomial and $J_\infty $ be the intersection of forward orbits of ‘small’ Julia sets of its simple renormalizations. We prove that if f admits an infinite sequence of satellite renormalizations, then every invariant measure of $f: J_\infty \to J_\infty $ is supported on the postcritical set and has zero Lyapunov exponent. Coupled with [13], this implies that the Lyapunov exponent of such f at c is equal to zero, which partly answers a question posed by Weixiao Shen.

Let $(X,\mu ,T,d)$ be a metric measure-preserving dynamical system such that three-fold correlations decay exponentially for Lipschitz continuous observables. Given a sequence $(M_k)$ that converges to $0$ slowly enough, we obtain a strong dynamical Borel–Cantelli result for recurrence, that is, for $\mu $-almost every $x\in X$,

$$ \begin{align*} \lim_{n \to \infty}\frac{\sum_{k=1}^{n} \mathbf{1}_{B_k(x)}(T^{k}x)} {\sum_{k=1}^{n} \mu(B_k(x))} = 1, \end{align*} $$

$\mu (B_k(x)) = M_k$

Schmidt games and the Cantor winning property give alternative notions of largeness, similar to the more standard notions of measure and category. Being intuitive, flexible, and applicable to recent research made them an active object of study. We survey the definitions of the most common variants and connections between them. A new game called the Cantor game is invented and helps with presenting a unifying framework. We prove surprising new results such as the coincidence of absolute winning and $1$ Cantor winning in metric spaces, and the fact that $1/2$ winning implies absolute winning for subsets of $\mathbb {R}$. We also suggest a prototypical example of a Cantor winning set to show the ubiquity of such sets in metric number theory and ergodic theory.

For $\mathscr {B} \subseteq \mathbb {N} $, the $ \mathscr {B} $-free subshift $ X_{\eta } $ is the orbit closure of the characteristic function of the set of $ \mathscr {B} $-free integers. We show that many results about invariant measures and entropy, previously only known for the hereditary closure of $ X_{\eta } $, have their analogues for $ X_{\eta } $ as well. In particular, we settle in the affirmative a conjecture of Keller about a description of such measures [G. Keller. Generalized heredity in $\mathcal B$-free systems. Stoch. Dyn. 21(3) (2021), Paper No. 2140008]. A central assumption in our work is that $\eta ^{*} $ (the Toeplitz sequence that generates the unique minimal component of $ X_{\eta } $) is regular. From this, we obtain natural periodic approximations that we frequently use in our proofs to bound the elements in $ X_{\eta } $ from above and below.

We show a new method of estimating the Hausdorff measure of a set from below. The method requires computing the subsequent closest return times of a point to itself.

In this work, we study ergodic and dynamical properties of symbolic dynamical system associated to substitutions on an infinite countable alphabet. Specifically, we consider shift dynamical systems associated to irreducible substitutions which have well-established properties in the case of finite alphabets. Based on dynamical properties of a countable integer matrix related to the substitution, we obtain results on existence and uniqueness of shift invariant measures.

Let $(M,g,J)$ be a closed Kähler manifold with negative sectional curvature and complex dimension $m := \dim _{\mathbb {C}} M \geq 2$. In this article, we study the unitary frame flow, that is, the restriction of the frame flow to the principal $\mathrm {U}(m)$-bundle $F_{\mathbb {C}}M$ of unitary frames. We show that if $m \geq 6$ is even and $m \neq 28$, there exists $\unicode{x3bb} (m) \in (0, 1)$ such that if $(M, g)$ has negative $\unicode{x3bb} (m)$-pinched holomorphic sectional curvature, then the unitary frame flow is ergodic and mixing. The constants $\unicode{x3bb} (m)$ satisfy $\unicode{x3bb} (6) = 0.9330...$, $\lim _{m \to +\infty } \unicode{x3bb} (m) = {11}/{12} = 0.9166...$, and $m \mapsto \unicode{x3bb} (m)$ is decreasing. This extends to the even-dimensional case the results of Brin and Gromov [On the ergodicity of frame flows. Invent. Math. 60(1) (1980), 1–7] who proved ergodicity of the unitary frame flow on negatively curved compact Kähler manifolds of odd complex dimension.

In our paper, we study multiplicative properties of difference sets $A-A$ for large sets $A \subseteq {\mathbb {Z}}/q{\mathbb {Z}}$ in the case of composite q. We obtain a quantitative version of a result of A. Fish about the structure of the product sets $(A-A)(A-A)$. Also, we show that the multiplicative covering number of any difference set is always small.

We study infinite systems of mean field weakly coupled intermittent maps in the Pomeau–Manneville scenario. We prove that the coupled system admits a unique ‘physical’ stationary state, to which all absolutely continuous states converge. Moreover, we show that suitably regular states converge polynomially.