Almost flow equivalence for hyperbolic basic sets (Q1209393)

The restriction of an Axiom A flow to its nonwandering set breaks up into finitely many connected components. On each component which is not a fixed point, the flow is a quotient of a suspension of some discrete dynamical system which is transitive and expansive and has canonical coordinates [\textit{R. Bowen}, On axiom \(A\) diffeomorphisms, CBMS Reg. Conf. Ser. Math. 35 (1978; Zbl 0383.58010)]. We show that in a certain precise sense, the nontrivial flows which arise in this way are almost equivalent. More generally, given irreducible finitely presented (FP) dynamical systems \(S\) and \(T\) of positive entropy, we produce an irreducible FP system \(U\) such that there are semiequivalences of standard suspensions \({\mathcal F} (U) \to {\mathcal F} (S)\) and \({\mathcal F}(U) \to {\mathcal F}(T)\) which have finite fibers and are one-to-one on the bilaterally transitive points. We summarize this by saying that the nontrivial irreducible FP systems of positive entropy are almost flow equivalent. This is an analogue for suspensions of the Adler-Marcus Theorem [\textit{R. L. Adler} and \textit{B. Marcus}, Topological entropy and equivalence of dynamical systems, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 219 (1979; Zbl 0412.54050)], which classifies irreducible shifts of finite type (SFT's) up to almost topological conjugacy by period and entropy. By way of David Fried's canonical covers, the FP result follows from the SFT case, where we can say more. Let \(S\) and \(T\) be irreducible SFT's of positive entropy. A theorem of \textit{B. Kitchens, B. Marcus} and \textit{P. Trow} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 11, 85-113 (1991; Zbl 0703.54023)] implies that there is a semi-equivalence with finite fibers from \({\mathcal F}(S)\) onto \({\mathcal F}(T)\) only if there is a group epimorphism of their Bowen-Franks groups. Conversely, given such an epimorphism we can construct a semi-equivalence from \({\mathcal F}(S)\) onto \({\mathcal F}(T)\) which has finite fibers and is one-to-one on bilaterally transitive points. The construction rests on \textit{J. Franks}'s flow equivalence classification [ibid. 4, 53-66 (1984; Zbl 0555.54026)] and \textit{W. Krieger's} Embedding Theorem [ibid. 2, 195-202 (1982; Zbl 0508.54032)]. If \(\mathcal F(S)\) has sign zero or sign equal to the sign of \({\mathcal F}(T)\), then we can make this semi-equivalence quite close to a homeomorphism; such ``good'' semi-equivalences suffice for the almost flow equivalence of SFTs.