On the finite-dimensional marginals of shift-invariant measures

TL;DR

This paper investigates the structure of shift-invariant measures on multi-dimensional symbolic spaces, revealing fundamental differences between one-dimensional and higher-dimensional cases, especially regarding the geometry of finite-dimensional marginals.

Contribution

It characterizes the geometric differences of finite-dimensional marginals of shift-invariant measures between one and higher dimensions, highlighting the complexity in higher dimensions.

Findings

In dimension one, the marginals form polytopes with rational extreme points.

In higher dimensions, the set of marginals can represent any computable convex set.

The sets of marginals differ significantly between one and higher dimensions for large n.

Abstract

Let $\Sigma$ be a finite alphabet, $\Omega=\Sigma^{\mathbb{Z}^{d}}$ equipped with the shift action, and $\mathcal{I}$ the simplex of shift-invariant measures on $\Omega$. We study the relation between the restriction $\mathcal{I}_n$ of $\mathcal{I}$ to the finite cubes $\{-n,...,n\}^d\subset\mathbb{Z}^d$, and the polytope of "locally invariant" measures $\mathcal{I}_n^{loc}$. We are especially interested in the geometry of the convex set $\mathcal{I}_n$ which turns out to be strikingly different when $d=1$ and when $d\geq 2$. A major role is played by shifts of finite type which are naturally identified with faces of $\mathcal{I}_n$, and uniquely ergodic shifts of finite type, whose unique invariant measure gives rise to extreme points of $\mathcal{I}_n$, although in dimension $d\geq 2$ there are also extreme points which arise in other ways. We show that $\mathcal{I}_n=\mathcal{I}_n^{loc}$ when $d=1$, but in higher dimension they differ for $n$ large enough. We also show that while in dimension one $\mathcal{I}_n$ are polytopes with rational extreme points, in higher dimensions every computable convex set occurs as a rational image of a face of $\mathcal{I}_n$ for all large enough $n$.