This paper contains results on the geometric and ergodic properties of a class of strange attractors introduced by Wang and Young [Towards a theory of rank one attractors. Ann. of Math. (2) 167 (2008), 349–480]. These attractors can live in phase spaces of any dimension, and have been shown to arise naturally in differential equations that model several commonly occurring phenomena. Dynamically, such systems are chaotic; they have controlled non-uniform hyperbolicity with exactly one unstable direction, hence the name rank-one. In this paper we prove theorems on their Lyapunov exponents, Sinai–Ruelle–Bowen (SRB) measures, basins of attraction, and statistics of time series, including central limit theorems, exponential correlation decay and large deviations. We also present results on their global geometric and combinatorial structures, symbolic coding and periodic points. In short, we build a dynamical profile for this class of dynamical systems, proving that these systems exhibit many of the characteristics normally associated with ‘strange attractors’.

We study the relation between escape rates and pressure in general dynamical systems with holes, where pressure is defined to be the difference between entropy and the sum of positive Lyapunov exponents. Central to the discussion is the formulation of a class of invariant measures supported on the survivor set over which we take the supremum to measure the pressure. Upper bounds for escape rates are proved for general diffeomorphisms of manifolds, possibly with singularities, for arbitrary holes and natural initial distributions, including Lebesgue and Sinai–Reulle–Bowen (SRB) measures. Lower bounds do not hold in such a generality, but for systems admitting Markov tower extensions with spectral gaps, we prove the equality of the escape rate with the absolute value of the pressure and the existence of an invariant measure realizing the escape rate, i.e. we prove a full variational principle. As an application of our results, we prove a variational principle for the billiard map associated with a planar Lorentz gas of finite horizon with holes.

We prove large deviation principles for ergodic averages of dynamical systems admitting Markov tower extensions with exponential return times. Our main technical result from which a number of limit theorems are derived is the analyticity of logarithmic moment generating functions. Among the classes of dynamical systems to which our results apply are piecewise hyperbolic diffeomorphisms, dispersing billiards including Lorentz gases, and strange attractors of rank one including Hénon-type attractors.

We consider zero-noise limits of random perturbations of dynamical systems and examine, in terms of the continuity of entropy and Lyapunov exponents, circumstances under which these limits are Sinai–Ruelle–Bowen (SRB) measures. The ideas of this general discussion are then applied to specific classes of attractors. We prove, for example, that partially hyperbolic attractors with one-dimensional center subbundles always admit SRB measures.

The purpose of this paper is to present some simple examples that are hyperbolic everywhere except at one point, but which do not admit SBR measures. Each example has a fixed point at which the larger eigenvalue is equal to one and the smaller eigenvalue is less than one.

We study the quadratic family and show that for a positive measure set of parameters the map has an absolutely continuous invariant measure that is stable under small random perturbations.

We study the effects of small random errors on the asymptotic distribution of points in the basin of a hyperbolic attractor.

We consider diffeomorphisms of surfaces leaving invariant an ergodic Borel probability measure μ. Define HD (μ) to be the infimum of Hausdorff dimension of sets having full μ-measure. We prove a formula relating HD (μ) to the entropy and Lyapunov exponents of the map. Other classical notions of fractional dimension such as capacity and Rényi dimension are discussed. They are shown to be equal to Hausdorff dimension in the present context.

Let f be a diffeomorphism of a manifold and Λ be an f-invariant set supporting an ergodic Borel probability measure μ with certain properties. A lower bound on the capacity of Λ is given in terms of the μ-Lyapunov exponents. This applies in particular to Axiom A attractors and their Bowen-Ruelle measure.