Perturbations of multidimensional shifts of finite type

Abstract In this paper, we study perturbations of multidimensional shifts of finite type. Specifically, for any ℤd shift of finite type X with d>1 and any finite pattern w in the language of X, we denote by Xw the set of elements of X not containing w. For strongly irreducible X and patterns w with shape a d-dimensional cube, we obtain upper and lower bounds on htop (X)−htop (Xw) dependent on the size of w. This extends a result of Lind for d=1 . We also apply our methods to an undecidability question in ℤd symbolic dynamics.