Pressure at infinity on countable Markov shifts

Abstract: In this article, we study the pressure at infinity of potentials defined over countable Markov shifts. We establish an upper semi-continuity result concerning the limiting behaviour of the pressure of invariant probability measures, where the escape of mass is controlled by the pressure at infinity. As a consequence, we establish criteria for the existence of equilibrium states and maximizing measures for uniformly continuous potentials. Additionally, we study the pressure at infinity of suspension flows defined over countable Markov shifts and prove an upper semi-continuity result for the pressure map.