Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2008
Ruelle and Capocaccia gave a new definition of Gibbs states on Smale spaces. Equilibrium states of suitable functions thereon are known to be Gibbs states. The converse is discussed in this paper, where the problem is reduced to shift spaces and solved there by constructing suitable conjugating homeomorphisms in order to verify the conditions for Gibbs states which Bowen gave for shift spaces, where the equivalence to equilibrium states is known.