Equilibrium states for non-uniformly hyperbolic systems: statistical properties and analyticity (Q2031236)

This paper explores a large family of nonuniformly expanding maps associated with hyperbolic potentials having small variation. It is known that this class has unique equilibrium states. The authors' goal is to show that these equilibrium states also possess strong statistical properties. They show in particular that correlations decay exponentially and that a version of the central limit holds. The authors prove that the unique equilibrium state for each member of the family is the eigenfunction of the transfer operator and the eigenmeasure of the dual operator. Both of these have the spectral radius as an eigenvalue. Using an approach with projective metrics they prove that the transfer operator has the spectral gap property in a space of Hölder continuous observables. The core of the paper deals with establishing this spectral gap property. Once the spectral gap property is proved, the authors also study the behavior of the system under small perturbations of the potential function. They prove that the equilibrium state and other thermodynamic quantities -- such as the topological pressure -- vary analytically with the potential. In a final section the authors broaden their scope to develop comparable results for equilibrium states associated with families of nonuniformly hyperbolic skew products and hyperbolic Hölder continuous potentials.