Bifurcations de points fixes elliptiques. I: Courbes invariantes (Q1059317)

This is the first part of a work whose aim is to show that one-parameter families of diffeomorphisms of \({\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) undergoing a bifurcation where two invariant curves neatly cancel each other (as in the vector- field case) play, in the dissipative realm, the role of rotations of the circle in the K.A.M. theory of area-preserving plane diffeomorphisms. In this paper, it is shown that in certain generic 2-parameter families of local plane diffeomorphisms unfolding a local diffeomorphism with an elliptic fixed point, there are always ''many'' 1-parameter subfamilies undergoing such a neat bifurcation, in the same way as a generic area- preserving plane diffeomorphism always has, in the neighborhood of an elliptic fixed point, ''many'' smooth invariant curves on which it is smoothly conjugated to a rotation. The proof uses normal forms and Russmann's translated curve theorem in a version derived by Herman from Hamilton's implicit function theorem. The second part appeared in Invent. Math. 80, 81-106 (1985). The third part will appear shortly.