 Geometric potential of an expanding map

For a differentiable uniformly expanding interval map, the geometric potential of an expanding map isThe exponential of its length-$n$ orbit sum is the reciprocal derivative magnitude $1/|(T^n{)}^{\prime }(x)|$. This weight is geometric: an inverse branch contracts interval lengths by that factor.

The corresponding Perron-Frobenius operator transports a density by summing contributions from inverse branches:For a finite smooth full-branch expanding map, standard bounded-distortion hypotheses give a positive regular fixed density $h$, normalized by $\int hdx=1$. The identity $\mathcal{L}h=h$ means that $h(x)dx$ is an invariant measure. The cylinder averages of an invariant density explain how the geometric cylinder weights recover that density.

For the doubling map, there are two inverse branches andThe constant density $h=1$ is fixed, giving Lebesgue measure. Choosing an unequal-symbol potential instead produces a different Gibbs measure; an arbitrary Gibbs measure need not be absolutely continuous. Thus the potential, rather than the symbolic alphabet alone, determines whether the measure agrees with geometric length.