Maps of intervals with indifferent fixed points: Thermodynamic formalism and phase transitions

We develop the thermodynamic formalism for a large class of maps of the interval with indifferent fixed points. For such systems the formalism yields onedimensional systems with many-body infinite-range interactions for which the thermodynamics is well defined but Gibbs states are not. (Piecewise linear systems of this kind yield the soluble, in a sense, Fisher models.) We prove that such systems exhibit phase transitions, the order of which depends on the behavior at the indifferent fixed points. We obtain the critical exponent describing the singularity of the pressure and analyze the decay of correlations of the equilibrium states at all temperatures. Our technique relies on establishing and exploiting a relation between the transfer operators of the original map and its suitable (expanding) induced version. The technique allows one also to obtain a version of the Bowen-Ruelle formula for the Hausdorff dimension of repellers for maps with indifferent fixed points, and to generalize Fisher results to some nonsoluble models.Meyerhoff Visiting Professor, on leave from the Center for Transport Theory and Mathematical Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061.