Upper semi-continuity of entropy in non-compact settings (Q1996260)

The main result of the paper asserts that for a countable Markov shift with finite topological entropy the measure-theoretic entropy is upper semi-continuous on the set of ergodic measures. The proof for such non-compact setting is based on the existence of a finite generating partition of the space such that the measure of its boundary is zero for every invariant measure. The authors also discuss the conditions that give the existence of measures of maximal entropy as well as equilibrium measures. The results are applied to suspension flows.