A classification of minimal sets of torus homeomorphisms (Q1955702)

The main theorem of the paper gives a classification of minimal sets of homeomorphisms of the \(2\)-torus \(\mathbb{T}^2\). For a homeomorphism of \(\mathbb{T}^2\), a subset \(M\) of \(\mathbb{T}^2\) is called a ``minimal set'' if it is closed, nonempty, invariant and if no proper subset of \(M\) has these three properties. A set contained in \(\mathbb{T}^2\) is called a topological disc if it is homeomorphic to a planar open disc. We say that a topological disc \(D\) is bounded if the connected components of \(\pi^{-1}(D)\) are bounded, where \(\pi\) is the canonical projection from \(\mathbb{R}^2\) to \(\mathbb{T}^2\). A set is called a topological annulus if it is homeomorphic to a planar open annulus. A topological annulus is said to be ``essential'' if it contains a Jordan curve which is homotopically nontrivial in \(\mathbb{T}^2\). An open set is called ``doubly essential'' if it contains two homotopically nontrivial curves of different homotopy types. The main theorem of the paper says that if \(M\) is a minimal set of a homeomorphism of \(\mathbb{T}^2\), different from \(\mathbb{T}^2\), then the complement of \(M\) is either a disjoint union of topological discs, or a disjoint union of essential annuli and topological discs, or a disjoint union of one doubly essential open connected set and bounded topological discs. Moreover, the behaviour of the homeomorphism on those components in terms of periodicity is described. Also, the non-wandering version of the Classification Theorem is presented. It describes the set \(M\) under the additional assumption that a homeomorphism is non-wandering (i.e., there does not exist any wandering open set). Here, also one of three conditions (depending on periodicity, so-called circloids and some properties indicated by a Cantor set) holds. Some special cases and applications, concerning in particular Anosov diffeomorphisms, are presented as well. Finally, some open problems are stated.