Existence of Gibbs measures for sequences of continuous functions

Abstract

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of invariant Gibbs measures for sequences of continuous functions on one-sided subshifts and, more generally, for the existence of Gibbs measures. These extend the results of Kim [7] and Baker and Ghenciu [2], respectively, to sequences of continuous functions on one-sided subshifts. In particular, we characterize the existence of invariant Gibbs measures for subadditive sequences. For superadditive sequences on subshifts with the strong specification property, such a characterization gives a necessary and sufficient condition for the uniqueness of invariant Gibbs measures. We apply these results to study some problems in the theory of relative pressure and relative equilibrium states.

revised (mainly section 4 of version 1)