Birth of homoclinic intersections: a model for the central dynamics of partially hyperbolic systems (Q624916)

J. Palis conjectured that any diffeomorphism of a compact manifold can be \(C^r\)-approximated by a Morse-Smale diffeomorphism or by a diffeomorphism with a transverse homoclinic intersection. Earlier it was shown by \textit{J. Palis} and \textit{S. Smale} [``Structural stability theorems'', Global Analysis, Proc. Sympos. Pure Math. 14, 223--231 (1970; Zbl 0214.50702)] that any \(C^1\) perturbation of a Morse-Smale diffeomorphism is a Morse-Smale diffeomorphism that is conjugate to the initial dynamics via a homeomorphism. In this paper the conjecture is proved for the case \(r=1\). As a consequence it is shown that the set of diffeomorphisms having robust entropy zero coincides with the closure of the Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms. Contributions to Palis' strong conjecture (the above being his weak conjecture) are also given.