Existence of Gibbs states and maximizing measures on a general one-dimensional lattice system with Markovian structure (Q2052906)

The authors consider a generalization of shifts of finite type for which the symbol space is replaced by a metric space \(X\) that is a finite union of clopen sets, and for each clopen set, there is a closed set of allowable follower symbols. They then equip the metric space with a probability measure. Given a Hölder continuous function on \(X\), they define an analogue of the Ruelle-Perron-Frobenius operator and prove results such as the existence of left and right eigenvectors for the operator, exponential convergence to the dominant eigenvector, etc. They also apply their results to some special countable state shifts of finite type (for which the set of symbols that can follow a symbol \(i\), \(F(i):=\{j\colon i\to j\}\), takes finitely many values as \(i\) ranges over the alphabet). They provide a class of potentials for these systems, to which the Ruelle-type theorem mentioned above applies.