Stochastic dominance for shift-invariant measures (Q1757415)

The paper deals with symbolic dynamics related to invariant measure problems. A special attention is given to circle rotations. Let \(X\) be the full shift on two symbols. The lexicographic order induces a partial order known as {first-order stochastic dominance} on the collection \(\mathcal{M}_X\) of its shift-invariant probability measures. The author presents a study of the fine structure of this dominance order and give criteria for establishing comparability or incomparability between measures in \(\mathcal{M}_X\). The criteria also provide an insight to the complicated combinatorics of orbits in the shift. As a byproduct, the author gives a direct proof that Sturmian measures are totally ordered with respect to the dominance order.