Robust Weak Ergodicity And Stable Ergodicity

In this paper, we define robust weak ergodicity and study the relation between robust weak ergodicity and stable ergodicity for conservative partially hyperbolic systems. We prove that a C^r(r > 1) conservative partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism is stably ergodic if it is robustly weakly ergodic and has positive (or negative) central exponents on a positive measure set. Furthermore, if the condition of robust weak ergodicity is replaced by weak ergodicity, then the diffeomophism is an almost stably ergodic system. Additionally, we show in dimension three, a C^r(r > 1) conservative partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism can be approximated by stably ergodic systems if it is robustly weakly ergodic and robustly has non-zero central exponents.     

Stably ergodic diffeomorphisms which are not partially hyperbolic

We show stable ergodicity of a class of conservative diffeomorphisms ofT ⁿ which do not have any hyperbolic invariant subbundle. Moreover, the uniqueness of SRB (Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen) measure for non-conservativeC ¹ perturbations of such diffeomorphisms is verified. This class strictly contains non-partially hyperbolic robustly transitive diffeomorphisms constructed by Bonatti-Viana [4] and so we answer the question posed there on the stable ergodicity of such systems.     

Hyperbolicity, heterodimensional cycles and Lyapunov exponents for partially hyperbolic dynamics

We prove a dichotomy of C² partially hyperbolic sets with one-dimensional center direction admitting no zero Lyapunov exponents, either hyperbolicity over the supports of ergodic measures or approximation by a heterodimensional cycle. This provides a partial result to the C¹ Palis Conjecture that claims a dichotomy, hyperbolicity or homoclinic bifurcations in a dense subset of the space of C¹ diffeomorphisms. Moreover, a theorem of Ma?é applied in the proof is modified to have an additional property concerning the Hausdorff distance between a periodic orbit and the support of a hyperbolic ergodic measure.     

Lyapunov exponents of partially hyperbolic volume-preserving maps with 2-dimensional center bundle

We consider the set of partially hyperbolic symplectic diffeomorphisms which are accessible, have 2-dimensional center bundle and satisfy some pinching and bunching conditions. In this set, we prove that the non-uniformly hyperbolic maps are $C^r$ open and there exists a $C^r$ open and dense subset of continuity points for the center Lyapunov exponents. We also generalize these results to volume-preserving systems.     

Dynamical coherence of partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms of tori isotopic to Anosov

We show that partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms of \(d\) -dimensional tori isotopic to an Anosov diffeomorphism, where the isotopy is contained in the set of partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms, are dynamically coherent. Moreover, we show a global stability result, i.e. every partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism as above is leaf-conjugate to the linear one. As a consequence, we obtain intrinsic ergodicity and measure equivalence for partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms with one-dimensional center direction that are isotopic to Anosov diffeomorphisms through such a path.     

Abundance of stable ergodicity

We consider the set of volume preserving partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms on a compact manifold having 1-dimensional center bundle. We show that the volume measure is ergodic, and even Bernoulli, for any C ² diffeomorphism in an open and dense subset of This solves a conjecture of Pugh and Shub, in this setting.     

Nonuniform hyperbolicity for C1-generic diffeomorphisms

We study the ergodic theory of non-conservative C ¹-generic diffeomorphisms. First, we show that homoclinic classes of arbitrary diffeomorphisms exhibit ergodic measures whose supports coincide with the homoclinic class. Second, we show that generic (for the weak topology) ergodic measures of C ¹-generic diffeomorphisms are non-uniformly hyperbolic: they exhibit no zero Lyapunov exponents. Third, we extend a theorem by Sigmund on hyperbolic basic sets: every isolated transitive set Λ of any C ¹-generic diffeomorphism f exhibits many ergodic hyperbolic measures whose supports coincide with the whole set Λ.     

Center manifolds for nonuniformly partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms

We establish the existence of smooth invariant center manifolds for the nonuniformly partially hyperbolic trajectories of a diffeomorphism in a Banach space. This means that the differentials of the diffeomorphism along the trajectory admit a nonuniform exponential trichotomy. We also consider the more general case of sequences of diffeomorphisms, which corresponds to a nonautonomous dynamics with discrete time. In addition, we obtain an optimal regularity for the center manifolds: if the diffeomorphisms are of class C^k then the manifolds are also of class C^k. As a byproduct of our approach we obtain an exponential control not only for the trajectories on the center manifolds, but also for their derivatives up to order k.     

C k-rigidity for hyperbolic flows II

In this note we prove the following result: Any conjugating homeomorphism between two geodesic flows for compact negatively curved compactC ^∞ surfaces is necessarilyC ^∞. This extends a result of Feldman and Ornstein. We also discuss some related results for hyperbolic flows and diffeomorphisms.     

SRB measures for partially hyperbolic systems whose central direction is mostly contracting

We consider partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms preserving a splitting of the tangent bundle into a strong-unstable subbundleE ^uu (uniformly expanding) and a subbundleE ^c, dominated byE ^uu. We prove that if the central directionE ^c is mostly contracting for the diffeomorphism (negative Lyapunov exponents), then the ergodic Gibbsu-states are the Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen measures, there are finitely many of them, and their basins cover a full measure subset. If the strong-unstable leaves are dense, there is a unique Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen measure. We describe some applications of these results, and we also introduce a construction of robustly transitive diffeomorphisms in dimension larger than three, having no uniformly hyperbolic (neither contracting nor expanding) invariant subbundles. Work partially supported by CNRS and CNPq/PRONEX-Dynamical Systems, and carried out at Laboratoire de Topologie, Dijon, and IMPA, Rio de Janeiro.     

SRB measures for partially hyperbolic systems whose central direction is mostly expanding

We construct Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen (SRB) measures supported on partially hyperbolic sets of diffeomorphisms – the tangent bundle splits into two invariant subbundles, one of which is uniformly contracting – under the assumption that the complementary subbundle is non-uniformly expanding. If the rate of expansion (Lyapunov exponents) is bounded away from zero, then there are only finitely many SRB measures. Our techniques extend to other situations, including certain maps with singularities or critical points, as well as diffeomorphisms having only a dominated splitting (and no uniformly hyperbolic subbundle). Oblatum 16-IV-1999 & 29-X-1999?Published online: 21 February 2000     

Stable ergodicity and julienne quasi-conformality

In this paper we dramatically expand the domain of known stably ergodic, partially hyperbolic dynamical systems. For example, all partially hyperbolic affine diffeomorphisms of compact homogeneous spaces which have the accessibility property are stably ergodic. Our main tools are the new concepts – julienne density point and julienne quasi-conformality of the stable and unstable holonomy maps. Julienne quasi-conformal holonomy maps preserve all julienne density points. Received June 14, 1999 / final version received October 25, 1999     

Train tracks with C 1+ self-renormalizable structures

We prove a one-to-one correspondence between C ¹⁺  conjugacy classes of diffeomorphisms with hyperbolic sets contained in surfaces and stable and unstable pairs of one-dimensional C ¹⁺  self-renormalizable structures.     

Physical measures and absolute continuity for one-dimensional center direction

For a class of partially hyperbolic C^k$C^k$, k>1$k>1$ diffeomorphisms with circle center leaves we prove the existence and finiteness of physical (or Sinai–Ruelle–Bowen) measures, whose basins cover a full Lebesgue measure subset of the ambient manifold. Our conditions hold for an open and dense subset of all C^k$C^k$ partially hyperbolic skew-products on compact circle bundles.     

The entropy conjecture for partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms with 1-D center

We prove that if f is a partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism on the compact manifold M with one-dimensional center bundle, then the logarithm of the spectral radius of the map induced by f on the real homology groups of M is smaller or equal to the topological entropy of f. This is a particular case of the Shub's entropy conjecture, which claims that the same conclusion should be true for any C¹ map on any compact manifold.     

Dichotomies between uniform hyperbolicity and zero Lyapunov exponents for SL(2, ℝ) cocycles

We consider the linear cocycle (T, A) induced by a measure preserving dynamical system T : X → X and a map A: X → SL(2, ℝ). We address the dependence of the upper Lyapunov exponent of (T, A) on the dynamics T when the map A is kept fixed. We introduce explicit conditions on the cocycle that allow to perturb the dynamics, in the weak and uniform topologies, to make the exponent drop arbitrarily close to zero. In the weak topology we deduce that if X is a compact connected manifold, then for a C^r (r ≥ 1) open and dense set of maps A, either (T, A) is uniformly hyperbolic for every T, or the Lyapunov exponents of (T, A) vanish for the generic measurable T. For the continuous case, we obtain that if X is of dimension greater than 2, then for a C^r (r ≥ 1) generic map A, there is a residual set of volume-preserving homeomorphisms T for which either (T, A) is uniformly hyperbolic or the Lyapunov exponents of (T, A) vanish. *Partially supported by CNPq-Profix and Franco-Brazilian cooperation program in Mathematics.     

Generic diffeomorphisms away from homoclinic tangencies and heterodimensional cycles

The C ¹ density conjecture of Palis asserts that diffeomorphisms exhibiting either a homoclinic tangency or a heterodimensional cycle are C ¹ dense in the complement of the C ¹ closure of hyperbolic systems. In this paper we prove some results towards the conjecture.* Work supported by the National Natural Science Foundation and the Doctoral Education Foundation of China, and the Qiu Shi Science and Technology Foundation of Hong Kong.     

Weakly Hyperbolic Actions of Kazhdan Groups on Tori

We study the ergodic and rigidity properties of weakly hyperbolic actions. First, we establish ergodicity for C² volume preserving weakly hyperbolic group actions on closed manifolds. For the integral action generated by a single Anosov diffeomorphism this theorem is classical and originally due to Anosov. Motivated by the Franks/Manning classification of Anosov diffeomorphisms on tori, we restrict our attention to weakly hyperbolic actions on the torus. When the acting group is a lattice subgroup of a semisimple Lie group with no compact factors and all (almost) simple factors of real rank at least two, we show that weak hyperbolicity in the original action implies weak hyperbolicity for the induced action on the fundamental group. As a corollary, we obtain that any such action on the torus is continuously semiconjugate to the affine action coming from the fundamental group via a map unique in the homotopy class of the identity. Under the additional assumption that some partially hyperbolic group element has quasi-isometrically embedded lifts of unstable leaves to the universal cover, we obtain a conjugacy, resulting in a continuous classification for these actions. Partially funded by VIGRE grant DMS-9977371 Received: January 2005 Revision: August 2005 Accepted: September 2005     

Growth of Groups and Diffeomorphisms of the Interval

We prove that, for all α > 0, every finitely generated group of C ^1+α diffeomorphisms of the interval with sub-exponential growth is almost nilpotent. Consequently, there is no group of C ^1+α interval diffeomorphisms having intermediate growth. In addition, we show that the C ^1+α regularity hypothesis for this assertion is essential by giving a C ¹ counter-example. Received: November 2006, Revised: July 2007, Accepted: July 2007     

Pseudo-rotations of the open annulus

In this paper, we study pseudo-rotations of the open annulus, i.e. conservative homeomorphisms of the open annulus whose rotation set is reduced to a single irrational number (the angle of the pseudo-rotation). We prove in particular that, for every pseudo-rotation h of angle ρ, the rigid rotation of angle ρ is in the closure of the conjugacy class of h. We also prove that pseudo-rotations are not persistent in C^r topology for any r ≥ 0.