Local Escape Rates for $\phi$-mixing Dynamical Systems

We show that dynamical systems with $\phi$-mixing measures have local escape rates which are exponential with rate $1$ at non-periodic points and equal to the extremal index at periodic points. We apply this result to equilibrium states on subshifts of finite type, expanding interval maps, Gibbs states on conformal repellers and more generally to Young towers and by extension to all systems that can be modeled by a Young tower.