Takens' last problem and existence of non-trivial wandering domains (Q728230)

Consider a dynamical system with a compact state space \(X\), given by a continuous map \(\varphi : X \to X\). The forward orbit \(\{x, \varphi(x), \varphi^2(x), ...\}\) of \(x \in X\) has {historic behavior} if the partial average \[ \frac{1}{m+1} \, \sum_{i=0}^{m} \delta_{\varphi^i(x)} \] does not converge as \(m \to \infty\) in the weak topology, where \(\delta_{\varphi^i(x)}\) is the Dirac measure on \(X\) supported at \(\varphi^i(x)\). Takens' last problem asks about the existence of persistent classes of smooth dynamical systems such that the set of initial states which give rise to orbits with historic behavior has positive Lebesgue measure. \newline The paper deals with dynamical systems on a closed two-dimensional \(C^\infty\)-manifold \(M\) defined by diffeomorphisms of class \(C^r\). The set of such diffeomorphisms is denoted by \(\text{Diff}^r(M)\) and it is endowed with the \(C^r\)-topology. A diffeomorphism \(f \in \text{Diff}^r(M)\) has a {homoclinic tangency} of a saddle periodic point \(p\) if the stable manifold \(W^s(p,f)\) and unstable manifold \(W^u(p,f)\) have a non-empty and non-transversal intersection. In this setting, the definition of {Newhouse open set} appears as a subset of \(\text{Diff}^r(M)\) formed by diffeomorphisms with a homoclinit tangency and with some other characteristics related to non-hyperbolic phenomena. Given \(f \in \text{Diff}^r(M)\), a {non-trivial wandering domain} is a non-empty connected open set \(D \subset M\) such that: the intersection of the sets \(f^i(D)\) and \(f^j(D)\) is null if \(i \neq j\), and the union of the \(\omega\)-limit sets of points in \(D\) for \(f\), denoted by \(\omega(D,f)\), is not equal to a single periodic orbit. A wandering domain is called {contracting} if the diameter of \(f^n(D)\) converges to \(0\) as \(n \to \infty\). The main result of the paper is the following and provides an answer to Takens' last problem. Let \(M\) be a closed surface and \(\mathcal{N}\) any Newhouse open set in \(\text{Diff}^r(M)\) with \(2 \leq r < \infty\). Then there exists a dense subset of \(\mathcal{N}\) each element \(f\) of which has a contracting wandering domain \(D\) such that: {\parindent=0.7cm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(\omega(D, f)\) contains a hyperbolic set which is not just a periodic orbit; \item[(2)] the forward orbit of every \(x \in D\) under \(f\) has historic behavior. \end{itemize}} As a corollary of this result, the authors consider the Hénon family \(f_{a,b}: \mathbb{R}^2 \to \mathbb{R}^2\) defined as \[ f_{a,b}(x,y) \, = \, (1-ax^2+y,bx), \] where \(a,b\) are real parameters. The authors obtain the following result: there is an open set \(\mathcal{O}\) of the parameter space of Hénon family with \((2,0) \in \text{Cl}(\mathcal{O})\) such that, for every \((a,b) \in \mathcal{O}\), \(f_{a,b}\) is \(C^r\)-approximated by diffeomorphisms which have contracting non-trivial wandering domains.