Use the following permitted kernel result, stated in the form needed here. For an Anosov flow generated by a smooth surface thermostat on a closed oriented Riemannian surface, if a smooth function on satisfies
where is a smooth base function and is a smooth one-form, then and is an exact differential form. Conversely these two conditions give a smooth solution by taking a base primitive. This is the kernel of the thermostat X-ray transform in degrees zero and one. In particular it applies to Gaussian thermostats without an additional curvature condition; it is stronger than the magnetic or geodesic special case.
Put , so . Suppose the thermostat preserves a smooth volume form. Write it as with smooth , choosing its sign separately on each component if necessary. By the invariant volume criterion for a smooth flow and the divergence computation in part (b),
Thus is a smooth solution of . Apply the stated kernel theorem with to obtain for a smooth base function . The definition of the gradient then gives .
Conversely, suppose . Since , the vertical part has no effect on a base function and
The divergence of a Gaussian thermostat and the volume-change formula therefore give
Consequently
Only the necessary direction uses the Anosov kernel theorem; the displayed invariant density works for any potential Gaussian thermostat. In particular its exponent is positive, as required to cancel the negative divergence found in part (b).