Equilibrium measures for some partially hyperbolic systems (Q2023717)

Let \(M\) be a compact smooth connected Riemannian manifold, \(U \subset M\) an open set and \(f : U \rightarrow M\) a diffeomorphism onto its image. Let \(\Lambda \subset U\) be a compact \(f \)-invariant subset. We say that \(f \vert_{\Lambda}\) is partially hyperbolic in the broad sense if the tangent bundle over \(\Lambda\) splits into two invariant and continuous sub-bundles \(T_\Lambda M = E^{cs}\oplus E^u\) and there is a Riemannian metric \(||\cdot||\) on \(M\) and numbers \(0 < \nu < \chi\) with \(\chi > 1\) such that for every \(x \in \Lambda\) \[ \|D f_x v\| \leq \nu \|v\| \;\; \mbox{for}\;\; v \in E^{cs}(x), \] \[ \|D f_x v\| \geq \chi\|v\| \;\; \mbox{for}\;\; v \in E^{u}(x). \] Assume that \(f \vert_{\Lambda}\) is topologically transitive and partially hyperbolic with an integrable center-stable bundle along which expansion under \(f^n\) is uniformly bounded independently of \(n\). The authors show that every potential function satisfying the Bowen property has a unique equilibrium measure with respect to \(f\). The proof of this result includes the construction of a family of reference measures on unstable leaves so that the averaged pushforwards of these measures converge to a measure that has the Gibbs property and is the unique equilibrium measure.