Prime orbit theorems for expanding Thurston maps: Lattès maps and split Ruelle operators

Abstract

We obtain an analog of the prime number theorem for a class of branched covering maps on the $2$-sphere $S^2$ called expanding Thurston maps, which are topological models of some non-uniformly expanding rational maps without any smoothness or holomorphicity assumption. More precisely, we show that the number of primitive periodic orbits, ordered by a weight on each point induced by a non-constant (eventually) positive real-valued Hölder continuous function on $S^2$ satisfying the $α$-strong non-integrability condition, is asymptotically the same as the well-known logarithmic integral, with an exponential error bound. In particular, our results apply to postcritically-finite rational maps for which the Julia set is the whole Riemann sphere. Moreover, a stronger result is obtained for Lattès maps.