On the measure of maximal entropy for finite horizon Sinai Billiard maps

DOI10.1090/JAMS/939zbMATH Open1444.37020arXiv1807.02330OpenAlexW3101934285WikidataQ126824543 ScholiaQ126824543MaRDI QIDQ5220195FDOQ5220195

Viviane Baladi, Mark F. Demers

Publication date: 11 March 2020

Published in: Journal of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The Sinai billiard map

T

on the two-torus, i.e., the periodic Lorentz gas, is a discontinuous map. Assuming finite horizon, we propose a definition

h_{*}

for the topological entropy of

T

. We prove that

h_{*}

is not smaller than the value given by the variational principle, and that it is equal to the definitions of Bowen using spanning or separating sets. Under a mild condition of sparse recurrence to the singularities, we get more: First, using a transfer operator acting on a space of anisotropic distributions, we construct an invariant probability measure

m u_{*}

of maximal entropy for

T

(i.e.,

h_{m u_{*}} (T) = h_{*}

), we show that

m u_{*}

has full support and is Bernoulli, and we prove that

m u_{*}

is the unique measure of maximal entropy, and that it is different from the smooth invariant measure except if all non grazing periodic orbits have multiplier equal to