Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2012
We define new isomorphism invariants for ergodic measure-preserving systems on standard probability spaces, called measure-theoretic chaos and measure-theoretic$^+$ chaos. These notions are analogs of the topological chaos DC2 and its slightly stronger version (which we denote by $\text {DC}1\frac 12$). We prove that: (1) if a topological system is measure-theoretically (measure-theoretically$^+$) chaotic with respect to at least one of its ergodic measures then it is topologically DC2 $(\text {DC}1\frac 12)$ chaotic; (2) every ergodic system with positive Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy is measure-theoretically$^+$ chaotic (even in a slightly stronger uniform sense). We provide an example showing that the latter statement cannot be reversed, that is, of a system of entropy zero with uniform measure-theoretic$^+$chaos.