Intrinsic ergodicity of smooth interval maps (Q1366943)

Let \(f\) be a \(C^\infty\) self-map of the interval \([0,1]\) that may have infinitely many critical points, i.e., points where the derivative changes its sign. The main result of this paper is the following Theorem: If \(f\) has strictly positive topological entropy, then the set of ergodic measures of maximal entropy for \(f\) is finite and non-empty, and each topologically transitive component of \(f\) carries at most one such measure. This result generalizes work of Hofbauer (who proved the same result for maps with finitely many critical points but without smoothness assumptions). It makes essential use of the topological spectral decomposition for continuous \(f\) by Blokh, of bounds on the upper semicontinuity defect of the entropy in terms of local entropy by Newhouse and by Yomdin, of a version of Hofbauer's Markov diagrams adapted to maps with infinitely many critical points, and of Gurevic's results on measures of maximal entropy for countable state topological Markov chains. In an appendix, the author constructs examples of \(C^r\) interval maps showing that the \(C^\infty\) assumption made on \(f\) is indispensible for both the existence as well as the finiteness result for the set of ergodic measures of maximal entropy for \(f\).