Negative Entropy, Zero temperature and stationary Markov Chains on the interval

Abstract

We analyze some properties of maximizing stationary Markov probabilities on the Bernoulli space $[0,1]^\mathbb{N}$, More precisely, we consider ergodic optimization for a continuous potential $A$, where $A: [0,1]^\mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{R}$ which depends only on the two first coordinates. We are interested in finding stationary Markov probabilities $\mu_\infty$ on $ [0,1]^\mathbb{N}$ that maximize the value $ \int A d \mu,$ among all stationary Markov probabilities $\mu$ on $[0,1]^\mathbb{N}$. This problem correspond in Statistical Mechanics to the zero temperature case for the interaction described by the potential $A$. The main purpose of this paper is to show, under the hypothesis of uniqueness of the maximizing probability, a Large Deviation Principle for a family of absolutely continuous Markov probabilities $\mu_\beta$ which weakly converges to $\mu_\infty$. The probabilities $\mu_\beta$ are obtained via an information we get from a Perron operator and they satisfy a variational principle similar to the pressure. Under the hypothesis of $A$ being $C^2$ and the twist condition, that is, $\frac{\partial^2 A}{\partial_x \partial_y} (x,y) \neq 0$, for all $(x,y) \in [0,1]^2$, we show the graph property.