Smooth mixing Anosov flows in dimension three are exponentially mixing (Q2100728)

Consider a \(3\)-dimensional compact manifold \(M\) and let \(g = \{g^t : M \to M\}\) be a \(C^\infty\) Anosov flow on \(M\). Given \(\theta > 0\) and \(F \in C^\theta(M)\), denote by \(\nu_F\) the unique equilibrium measure for \(g\) with potential \(F\). The flow \(g\) is called exponentially mixing with respect to \(\nu_F\) and all Hölder test functions if for any \(\beta > 0\) there is \(\kappa = \kappa(g, \beta) > 0\) and \(C = C(g, \beta) > 0\) such that any \(A, B \in C^\beta(M)\) satisfy \[ \Bigl| \int A \circ g^t B d\nu_F - \int A d\nu_F \int B d\nu_F \Bigr| \leq Ce^{-t\kappa} \|A\|_{C^\beta} \|B\|_{C^\beta} \; \; \forall t > 0 \;. \] The authors prove two interesting results about the relation between the behavior of the equilibrium measures and the dynamics of the flow. The first of the main results is the following: {Theorem.} Let \(g\) be a \(C^\infty\) transitive Anosov flow on a \(3\)-dimensional compact manifold \(M\). Then the following statements are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item[1.] \(g\) is topologically mixing; \item[2.] \(g\) is exponentially mixing with respect to any equilibrium measure with Hölder potential and all Hölder test functions. \end{itemize} On the other hand, given a periodic orbit \(\mathcal{O}\) of \(g\) with prime period \(l(\mathcal{O})\), denote by \(\pi(T) = |\{\mathcal{O} : l(\mathcal{O}) \leq T\}|\) for each \(T > 0\). It is well known that in the case of topologically mixing hyperbolic flows the following estimate holds \[ \pi(T) = (1 + o(1))\mathrm{li}(e^{h_{\mathrm{top}}(T)}) \text{ as } T \to +\infty \;, \] where \[ \mathrm{li}(y) = \int_2^y \frac{1}{\log u}du \sim \frac{y}{\log y} \text{ as } y \to +\infty \;. \] The second main result of the paper provides a better estimate of the value \(\pi(T)\): {Theorem.} Let \(g\) be a \(C^\infty\) topologically mixing Anosov flow on a \(3\)-dimensional compact manifold. Denote \(h = h_{\mathrm{top}}(g^1)\). Then there exists \(0 < c < h\) such that \[ \pi(T) = \mathrm{li}(e^{hT}) + O(e^{cT}) \;. \]