arXiv subjects

Maria Jose Pacifico

Publications and source records attributed to Maria Jose Pacifico.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

An Ergodic Spectral Decomposition Theorem for Singular Star Flows

For Axiom A diffeomorphisms and flows, Smale's Spectral Decomposition Theorem asserts that the non-wandering set decomposes into finitely many isolated hyperbolic basic sets, each given by a homoclinic class. For singular star flows, which may be viewed as "Axiom A flows with singularities", the corresponding spectral decomposition remains open and is known as the Spectral Decomposition Conjecture. We provide a positive answer to an ergodic formulation of this conjecture: $C^1$-open and dense among singular star flows with positive topological entropy, there is a unique measure of maximal entropy. More generally, we prove the uniqueness of equilibrium states for Hölder continuous potentials under a mild and natural pressure gap condition. We further establish that $C^1$-open and dense star flows are almost expansive and that the topological pressure of continuous potentials varies continuously with respect to the vector field in the $C^1$ topology. Our approach combines ergodic and geometric arguments adapted to the multi-singular setting. In this context, classical hyperbolic tools such as uniform local product structure or invariant splittings on the tangent bundle are no longer available. To overcome this, we develop new mechanisms to control the geometry of orbit segments and to produce transversal intersections on large subsets uniformly detected by good invariant measures. These ingredients allow us to extend classical arguments to the multi-singular setting through structural properties of equilibrium states combined with refined shadowing and specification at the level of invariant measures.

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arXiv2025

An Improved Climenhaga-Thompson Criterion for Locally Maximal Sets

We study the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium states for continuous flows on a compact, locally maximal invariant set under weak, non-uniform versions of specification, expansivity, and the Bowen property, further improving the Climenhaga-Thompson Criterion.

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arXiv2024

Equilibrium states for the classical Lorenz attractor and sectional-hyperbolic attractors in higher dimensions

It has long been conjectured that the classical Lorenz attractor supports a unique measure of maximal entropy. In this article, we give a positive answer to this conjecture and its higher-dimensional counterpart by considering the uniqueness of equilibrium states for Hölder continuous functions on a sectional-hyperbolic attractor $Λ$. We prove that in a $C^1$-open and dense family of vector fields (including the classical Lorenz attractor), if the point masses at singularities are not equilibrium states, then there exists a unique equilibrium state supported on $Λ$. In particular, there exists a unique measure of maximal entropy for the flow $X|_Λ$.

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arXiv2024

Finite Measures of Maximal Entropy for an Open Set of Partially Hyperbolic Diffeomorphisms

We consider partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms $f$ with a one-dimensional central direction such that the unstable entropy exceeds the stable entropy. Our main result proves that such maps have a finite number of ergodic measures of maximal entropy. Moreover, any $C^{1+}$ diffeomorphism near $f$ in the $C^1$ topology possesses at most the same number of ergodic measures of maximal entropy. Our contribution is in extending the findings in [4] to arbitrary dimensions. We believe our technique, essentially distinct from the one in that paper, is robust and may find applications in further contexts.

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arXiv2024

Upper, down, two-sided Lorenz attractor, collisions, merging and switching

We present a slightly modified version of the well known "geometric Lorenz attractor". It consists in a C1 open set O of vector fields in R3 having an attracting region U containing: (1) a unique singular saddle point sigma; (2) a unique attractor Lambda containing the singular point; (3) the maximal invariant in U contains at most 2 chain recurrence classes, which are Lambda and (at most) one hyperbolic horseshoe. The horseshoe and the singular attractor have a collision along the union of 2 co-dimension 1 sub-manifolds which divide O in 3 regions. By crossing this collision locus, the attractor and the horseshoe may merge in a two-sided Lorenz attractor, or they may exchange their nature: the Lorenz attractor expel the singular point sigma and becomes a horseshoe and the horseshoe absorbs sigma becoming a Lorenz attractor. By crossing this collision locus, the attractor and the horseshoe may merge in a two-sided Lorenz attractor, or they may exchange their nature: the Lorenz attractor expel the singular point sigma and becomes a horseshoe and the horseshoe absorbs sigma becoming a Lorenz attractor.

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arXiv2022

On Bowen's entropy inequality and almost specification for flows

We study the Bowen topological entropy of generic and irregular points for certain dynamical systems. We define the topological entropy of noncompact sets for flows, analogous to Bowen's definition. We show that this entropy coincides with the Bowen topological entropy of the time-1 map on any set. We also show a Bowen's inequality for flows; namely, that the metric entropy with respect to every invariant measure for a continuous flow is an upper bound for the topological entropy of the set of generic points with respect to the same measure, and the equality is always true if the measure is ergodic. We propose a definition of almost specification property for flows and prove that a continuous flow has the almost specification property if the time-1 map satisfies this property. Using Bowen's inequality for flows, we show that every continuous flow with the almost specification property is saturated, extending a result of Meson and Vericat in [22]. Under the same hypotheses, we extend a result of Thompson on the entropy of irregular points in [30].

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arXiv2022

Existence and uniqueness of equilibrium states for systems with specification at a fixed scale

We consider the uniqueness of equilibrium states for dynamical systems that satisfy certain weak, non-uniform versions of specification, expansivity, and the Bowen property at a fixed scale. Following Climenhaga-Thompson's approach which was originally due to Bowen and Franco, we prove that equilibrium states are unique even when the weak specification assumption only holds on a small collection of orbit segments.

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arXiv2022

Uniqueness of equilibrium states for Lorenz attractors in any dimension

In this note, we consider the thermodynamic formalism for Lorenz attractors of flows in any dimension. Under a mild condition on the Hölder continuous potential function $ϕ$, we prove that for an open and dense subset of $C^1$ vector fields, every Lorenz attractor supports a unique equilibrium state. In particular, we obtain the uniqueness for the measure of maximal entropy.

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arXiv2021

Entropy of irregular points for some dynamical systems

We derive sufficient conditions for a dynamical systems to have a set of irregular points with full topological entropy. Such conditions are verified for some nonuniformly hyperbolic systems such as positive entropy surface diffeomorphisms and rational functions on the Riemann sphere.

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arXiv2020

Entropy theory for sectional hyperbolic flows

We use entropy theory as a new tool to study sectional hyperbolic flows in any dimension. We show that for $C^1$ flows, every sectional hyperbolic set $Λ$ is entropy expansive, and the topological entropy varies continuously with the flow. Furthermore, if $Λ$ is Lyapunov stable, then it has positive entropy; in addition, if $Λ$ is a chain recurrent class, then it contains a periodic orbit. As a corollary, we prove that for $C^1$ generic flows, every Lorenz-like class is an attractor.

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arXiv2017

Expansive Measures versus Lyapunov exponents

In this paper we investigate the relation between measure expansiveness and hyperbolicity. We prove that non atomic invariant ergodic measures with all of its Lyapunov exponents positive is positively measure-expansive. We also prove that local diffeomorphisms robustly positively measure-expansive is expanding. Finally, we prove that if a $C^1$ volume preserving diffeomorphism that. can not be accumulated by positively measure expansive diffeomorphis have a dominated sppliting.

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arXiv2016

Hitting times distribution and extreme value law for flows

For flows whose return map on a cross section has sufficient mixing property, we show that the hitting time distribution of the flow to balls is exponential in limit. We also establish a link between the extreme value distribution of the flow and its hitting time distribution, generalizing a previous work by Freitas et al. in the discrete time case. Finally we show that for maps that can be modeled by Young`s tower with polynomial tail, the extreme value law holds.

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arXiv2015

CW-expansivity and entropy for flows

We define the concept of continuum wise expansive for flows, and we prove that continuum wise expansive flows on compact metric spaces with topological dimension greater than one have positive entropy.

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arXiv2013

Adapted random perturbations for non-uniformly expanding maps

We obtain stochastic stability of C2 non-uniformly expanding one-dimensional endomorphisms, requiring only that the first hyperbolic time map be L^{p}-integrable for p>3. We show that, under this condition (which depends only on the unperturbed dynamics), we can construct a random perturbation that preserves the original hyperbolic times of the unperturbed map and, therefore, to obtain non-uniform expansion for random orbits. This ensures that the first hyperbolic time map is uniformly integrable for all small enough noise levels, which is known to imply stochastic stability. The method enables us to obtain stochastic stability for a class of maps with infinitely many critical points. For higher dimensional endomorphisms, a similar result is obtained, but under stronger assumptions.

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arXiv2013

Decay of correlations for maps with uniformly contracting fibers and logarithm law for singular hyperbolic attractors

We consider two dimensional maps preserving a foliation which is uniformly contracting and a one dimensional associated quotient map having exponential convergence to equilibrium (iterates of Lebesgue measure converge exponentially fast to physical measure). We prove that these maps have exponential decay of correlations over a large class of observables. We use this result to deduce exponential decay of correlations for the Poincare maps of a large class of singular hyperbolic flows. From this we deduce logarithm laws for these flows.

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arXiv2013

On measure expansive diffeomorphisms

Let $f: M \to M$ be a diffeomorphism defined on a compact boundaryless $d$-dimensional manifold $M$, $d\geq 2$. C. Morales has proposed the notion of measure expansiveness. In this note we show that diffeomorphisms in a residual subset far from homoclinic tangencies are measure expansive. We also show that surface diffeomorphisms presenting homoclinic tangencies can be $C^1$-approximated by non-measure expansive diffeomorphisms.

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arXiv2009

Thermodynamic formalism for contracting Lorenz flows

We study the expansion properties of the contracting Lorenz flow introduced by Rovella via thermodynamic formalism. Specifically, we prove the existence of an equilibrium state for the natural potential $\hatϕ_t(x,y, z):=-t\log J_{(x, y, z)}^{cu}$ for the contracting Lorenz flow and for $t$ in an interval containing $[0,1]$. We also analyse the Lyapunov spectrum of the flow in terms of the pressure.

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arXiv2009

Lorenz-like chaotic attractors revised

We describe some recent results on the dynamics of singular-hyperbolic (or Lorenz-like) attractors: attractors in this class are expansive and so sensitive with respect to initial data; they admit a unique physical measure whose support is the whole attractor, which is hyperbolic and the equilibrium state with respect to the center-unstable Jacobian; the hitting time associated to a geometric Lorenz attractor satisfies a logarithm law; the rate of large deviations for the physical measure on the ergodic basin of a geometric Lorenz attractor is exponential.

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