Dynamics of random transformations: Smooth ergodic theory (Q2757005)

This is a survey on the smooth ergodic theory of compositions of smooth random maps from a \(C^\infty\) connected compact Riemann manifold to itself, where the randomness is stationary and ergodic in time. A large part of this survey is devoted to the case where the random maps are independent and identically distributed (i. i. d.), where Markov operator methods can be used. The topics dealt with are first the relations between Lyapunov exponents, entropy, and dimension, presenting amongst others a version of the Pesin theory. Then the thermodynamic formalism for these systems is addressed, introducing the notions of equilibrium and Gibbs states, and of random subshifts of finite type, and stating a version of the random Ruelle-Perron-Frobenius theorem. Finally, applications of the thermodynamic formalism to random hyperbolic diffeomorphisms and to random expanding maps are reviewed.