Let be a finite set of symbols. Let X denote the set of all bi-infinite sequences of elements of V together with the shift operatorT. We endow V with the discrete topology and X with the product topology. A symbolic flow or subshift is a closedT-invariant subset Y of X and the associated language LY is the set of finite subsequences of Y. Now let be an adjacency matrix with entries in. Using these elements we construct a directed graphG= with V the set of vertices and E the set of edges containing the directed edge in E if and only if. Let Y be the set of all infinite admissible sequences of edges, where by admissible it is meant that the sequence is a walk of the graph, and the sequence can be either one-sided or two-sided infinite. Let T be the left shift operator on such sequences; it plays the role of the time-evolution operator of the dynamical system. A subshift of finite type is then defined as a pair obtained in this way. If the sequence extends to infinity in only one direction, it is called a one-sided subshift of finite type, and if it is bilateral, it is called a two-sided subshift of finite type. Formally, one may define the sequences of edges as This is the space of all sequences of symbols such that the symbol p can be followed by the symbol q only if the th entry of the matrixA is 1. The space of all bi-infinite sequences is defined analogously: The shift operator T maps a sequence in the one- or two-sided shift to another by shifting all symbols to the left, i.e. Clearly this map is only invertible in the case of the two-sided shift. A subshift of finite type is called transitive if G is strongly connected: there is a sequence of edges from any one vertex to any other vertex. It is precisely transitive subshifts of finite type which correspond to dynamical systems with orbits that are dense. An important special case is the full n-shift: it has a graph with an edge that connects every vertex to every other vertex; that is, all of the entries of the adjacency matrix are 1. The full n-shift corresponds to the Bernoulli scheme without the measure.
Terminology
By convention, the term shift is understood to refer to the full n-shift. A subshift is then any subspace of the full shift that is shift-invariant, non-empty, and closed for the product topology defined below. Some subshifts can be characterized by a transition matrix, as above; such subshifts are then called subshifts of finite type. Often, subshifts of finite type are called simply shifts of finite type. Subshifts of finite type are also sometimes called topological Markov shifts.
Generalizations
A sofic system is a subshift of finite type where different edges of the transition graph may correspond to the same symbol. It may be regarded as the set of labellings of paths through an automaton: a subshift of finite type then corresponds to an automaton which is deterministic. A renewal system is defined to be the set of all infinite concatenations of some fixed finite collection of finite words. Subshifts of finite type are identical to free one-dimensional Potts models, with certain nearest-neighbor configurations excluded. Interacting Ising models are defined as subshifts together with a continuous function of the configuration space ; the partition function and Hamiltonian are explicitly expressible in terms of this function. Subshifts may be quantized in a certain way, leading to the idea of the quantum finite automata.
Topology
A subshift has a natural topology, derived from the product topology on, where and V is given the discrete topology. A basis for the topology of, which induces the topology of the subshift, is the family of cylinder sets The cylinder sets are clopen sets in. Every open set in is a countable union of cylinder sets. Every open set in the subshift is the intersection of an open set of with the subshift. With respect to this topology, the shift T is a homeomorphism; that is, with respect to this topology, it is continuous with continuous inverse.
Metric
A variety of different metrics can be defined on a shift space. One can define a metric on a shift space by considering two points to be "close" if they have many initial symbols in common; this is the p-adic metric. In fact, both the one- and two-sided shift spaces are compactmetric spaces.
Measure
A subshift of finite type may be endowed with any one of several different measures, thus leading to a measure-preserving dynamical system. A common object of study is the Markov measure, which is an extension of a Markov chain to the topology of the shift. A Markov chain is a pair consisting of the transition matrix, an matrix for which all and for all i. The stationary probability vector has all and has A Markov chain, as defined above, is said to be compatible with the shift of finite type if whenever. The Markov measure of a cylinder set may then be defined by The Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy with relation to the Markov measure is
