Uniqueness of the measure of maximal entropy for geodesic flows on surfaces

Abstract

We prove that if a geodesic flow on a closed orientable $C^\infty$ surface is transitive and has positive topological entropy, then it has a unique measure of maximal entropy. This covers all previous results of the literature on the uniqueness of the measure of maximal entropy in this context, as well as it applies to new examples such as the ones constructed by Donnay and Burns-Donnay. We also prove that, in the above context, there is at most one SRB measure.