On systems with finite ergodic degree

In this paper we study the ergodic theory of a class of symbolic dynamical systems $(\O, T, \mu)$ where $T:{\O}\to \O$ the left shift transformation on $\O=\prod_0^\infty\{0,1\}$ and $\mu$ is a $\s$-finite $T$-invariant measure having the property that one can find a real number $d$ so that $\mu(\tau^d)=\infty$ but $\mu(\tau^{d-\epsilon})<\infty$ for all $\epsilon >0$, where $\tau$ is the first passage time function in the reference state 1. In particular we shall consider invariant measures $\mu$ arising from a potential $V$ which is uniformly continuous but not of summable variation. If $d>0$ then $\mu$ can be normalized to give the unique non-atomic equilibrium probability measure of $V$ for which we compute the (asymptotically) exact mixing rate, of order $n^{-d}$. We also establish the weak-Bernoulli property and a polynomial cluster property (decay of correlations) for observables of polynomial variation. If instead $d\leq 0$ then $\mu$ is an infinite measure with scaling rate of order $n^d$. Moreover, the analytic properties of the weighted dynamical zeta function and those of the Fourier transform of correlation functions are shown to be related to one another via the spectral properties of an operator-valued power series which naturally arises from a standard inducing procedure. A detailed control of the singular behaviour of these functions in the vicinity of their non-polar singularity at $z=1$ is achieved through an approximation scheme which uses generating functions of a suitable renewal process. In the perspective of differentiable dynamics, these are statements about the unique absolutely continuous invariant measure of a class of piecewise smooth interval maps with an indifferent fixed point.