On the complexity of expansive measures of nonautonomous dynamical systems (Q2134982)

\textit{W. R. Utz} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 1, 769--774 (1950; Zbl 0040.09903)] introduced the notion of \textit{expansivity} of discrete dynamical systems. Such systems are defined by pairs \((X,f)\) where \(X\) (the phase space) is a compact metric space and \(f: X \rightarrow X\) a continuous map. Nowadays it is known that unstable homeomorphisms are expansive. Here the authors redefine the notions of \textit{positive expansion}, \textit{positively expansive measures} and \textit{maximal cardinalities of separate sets} of autonomous systems. The main aim of this paper is to extend such notions to the setting of nonautonomous dynamical systems. A nonautonomous dynamical system is denoted by the pair \((X, f_{1,\infty})\), where \(f_{i,\infty} = (f_{i}: X \rightarrow X)_{i=1}^{\infty}\). Most of its properties were introduced by \textit{S. Kolyada} and \textit{Ľ. Snoha} [Random Comput. Dyn. 4, No. 2--3, 205--233 (1996; Zbl 0909.54012)]. Let us start with some relevant definitions for \((X, f)\). \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] A homeomorphism \(f: X \rightarrow X\) of a compact metric space into itself is \textit{expansive} if there exist \(\delta > 0\) such that for every pair \(x, y \in X\) with \(x \neq y\) there is \(n \in \mathbb{Z}\) such that \[ d(f^{n}(x), f^{n}(y)) > \delta, \] or, equivalently, if there is \(\delta > 0\) such that \[ \Gamma_{\delta}(x) = \{y \in X: d(f^{i}(x),f^{i}) \leq \delta \ \forall i \in \mathbb{Z}\} = 0. \] \item[(2)] An \textit{expansive measure} of the homeomorphism \(f\) is a Borel measure \(\mu\) for which there is \(\delta > 0\) such that \(\mu (\Gamma_{\delta}(x)) = 0\) for all \(x \in X\). The constant \(\delta\) is called an expansive constant of \(\mu\). \item[(3)] If the set \(\mu({\Gamma_{\delta }(x)})\) is countable the homeomorphism is called \textit{countable expansive}. \end{itemize} To extend these notions to the nonautonomous setting the authors prove that a nonautonomous dynamical system is positively expansive if and only if it is positively countably expansive. Also stable points and equicontinuity are notions here considered. The main results are as follows: \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] For any nonautonomous dynamical system with positive expansive measure there exists \(e > 0\) and a corresponding sequence of \((n, e)\)-separated sets whose cardinalities tend to infinite when \(n \rightarrow \infty\). The same holds true for positively expansive systems; \item[(2)] For any nonautonomous dynamical system satisfying such properties, there is a Borel probability measure such that its set of stable points is zero; \item[(3)] A nonautonomous dynamical system is positively measure expansive if and only if it is positively countably expansive. \end{itemize} In fact these results generalize the work by \textit{C. A. Morales} [Acta Math. Sin., Engl. Ser. 31, No. 9, 1501--1507 (2015; Zbl 1358.37038)]. The proofs of the main results are obtained using the classical approach based on ergodic theory as in [\textit{P. Walters}, An introduction to ergodic theory. Paperback ed. New York, NY: Springer (2000; Zbl 0958.28011)]. Overall, this is a very interesting paper.