Constructing equilibrium states for some partially hyperbolic attractors via densities

Abstract We describe a new construction of equilibrium states for a class of partially hyperbolic systems. This generalizes our construction for Gibbs measures in the uniformly hyperbolic setting. This more general setting introduces new issues that we need to address carefully, in particular requiring additional assumptions on the transformation. We treat two cases: either the centre-stable manifold satisfies a bounded expansion condition; or the centre-unstable manifold satisfies a subexponential contraction condition which appears new in the context of equilibrium state constructions. The problem of constructing equilibrium states was previously raised by Pesin and Sinai and by Dolgopyat for the particular case of u-Gibbs measures, and by Climenhaga, Pesin and Zelerowicz for other equilibrium states.