It has been well-known since foundational work of Hochman and Meyerovitch that that the topological entropy of a multidimensional shift of finite type may have no closed form, and in fact may even be noncomputable. For this reason, it is worthwhile to find provable approximation schemes for the entropy/pressure of "well-behaved" multidimensional models. I will describe some results guaranteeing such approximability schemes, ranging from general results requiring only mixing con-ditions on the underlying SFT to specific results tailored to individual models, and will outline some of the ways in which such results can be proven.[-]

​An almost Anosov flow is a flow having continuous flow-invariant splitting of the tangent bundle with exponential expansion/contraction in the unstable/stable direction, except for a finite number (in our case a single) periodic orbits. Roughly, almost Anosov flows are perturbed Anosov flows, where the perturbation is local around these periodic orbits, making them neutral. For this type of flows, we obtain limit theorems (stable, standard and non-standard CLT) for a large class of (unbounded) observables. I will present these results stressing on the method of proof. This is joint work with H. Bruin and M. Todd.[-]

In the 80's, D. Ruelle, D. Bowen and others have introduced probabilistic and spectral methods in order to study deterministic chaos (”Ruelle resonances”). For a geodesic flow on a strictly negative curvature Riemannian manifold, following this approach and use of microlocal analysis, one obtains that long time fluctuations of classical probabilities are described by an effective quantum wave equation. This may be surprising because there is no added quantization procedure. We will discuss consequences for the zeros of dynamical zeta functions. This shows that the problematic of classical chaos and quantum chaos are closely related. Joint work with Masato Tsujii.[-]

Rufus Bowen introduced the specification property for uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems and used it to establish uniqueness of equilibrium states, including the measure of maximal entropy. After reviewing Bowen's argument, we will present our recent work on extending Bowen's approach to non-uniformly hyperbolic systems. We will describe the general result, which makes precise the notion of "entropy (orpressure) of obstructions to specification" using a decomposition of the space of finite-length orbit segments, and then survey various applications, including factors of beta-shifts, derived-from-Anosov diffeomorphisms, and geodesic flows in non-positive curvature and beyond.[-]

Rufus Bowen introduced the specification property for uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems and used it to establish uniqueness of equilibrium states, including the measure of maximal entropy. After reviewing Bowen's argument, we will present our recent work on extending Bowen's approach to non-uniformly hyperbolic systems. We will describe the general result, which makes precise the notion of "entropy (orpressure) of obstructions to specification" using a decomposition of the space of finite-length orbit segments, and then survey various applications, including factors of beta-shifts, derived-from-Anosov diffeomorphisms, and geodesic flows in non-positive curvature and beyond.[-]

Rufus Bowen introduced the specification property for uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems and used it to establish uniqueness of equilibrium states, including the measure of maximal entropy. After reviewing Bowen's argument, we will present our recent work on extending Bowen's approach to non-uniformly hyperbolic systems. We will describe the general result, which makes precise the notion of "entropy (orpressure) of obstructions to specification" using a decomposition of the space of finite-length orbit segments, and then survey various applications, including factors of beta-shifts, derived-from-Anosov diffeomorphisms, and geodesic flows in non-positive curvature and beyond.[-]

These lectures are a mostly self-contained sequel to Vaughn Climenhaga's talks in week 1. The focus of the week 2 lectures will be on uniqueness of equilibrium states for rank 1 geodesic flows, and their mixing properties. Burns, Climenhaga, Fisher and myself showed recently that if the higher rank set does not carry full topological pressure then the equilibrium state is unique. I will discuss the proof of this result. With this result in hand, the question of when the “pressure gap” hypothesis can be verified becomes crucial. I will sketch our proof of the “entropy gap”, which is a new direct constructive proof of a result by Knieper. I will also describe new joint work with Ben Call, which shows that all the unique equilibrium states provided above have the Kolmogorov property. When the manifold has dimension at least 3, this is a new result even for the Knieper-Bowen-Margulis measure of maximal entropy. The common thread that links all of these arguments is that they rely on weak orbit specification properties in the spirit of Bowen.[-]