Regularity properties of Hausdorff dimension in infinite conformal iterated function systems

Abstract

This paper deals with families of conformal iterated function systems (CIFS). The space of all CIFS, with common seed space X and alphabet I, is successively endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence and a new, weaker topology called $\lambda$-topology. It is proved that the pressure and the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set are continuous with respect to the topology of pointwise convergence when I is finite, and are lower semi-continuous, though generally not continuous, when I is infinite. It is then shown that these two functions are, in any case, continuous in the $\lambda$-topology. The concepts of analytic, regularly analytic and plane-analytic families of CIFS are also introduced. It is established that if a family of CIFS is regularly analytic, then the Hausdorff dimension function is real-analytic; if a family is plane-analytic, then the Hausdorff dimension function is continuous and subharmonic, though not necessarily real-analytic. These results are then applied to finite parabolic CIFS. Counter-examples highlighting breakdowns of real-analyticity in the Hausdorff dimension among analytic, but not regularly analytic, families are further provided. Such families often exhibit a phenomenon known as phase transition. Sufficient conditions preventing the occurrence of such transitions are supplemented.