Lyapunov exponents of partially hyperbolic volume-preserving maps with 2-dimensional center bundle (Q1669645)

The authors investigate the behavior of Lyapunov exponents for partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms that have a two-dimensional center bundle. Two questions are primary: the first is when the subset of nonuniformly hyperbolic diffeomorphisms is open in the set of partially hyperbolic diffeomorphisms. The second is when the center Lyapunov exponents are continuous. The authors consider the set \(B^r_\omega(M)\), the subset of the partially hyperbolic symplectic systems on a manifold \(M\) that are accessible, have a two-dimensional center-bundle and satisfy some technical pinching and bunching conditions. Given \(x,y\in M\), \(x\) is accessible from \(y\) if there is a path connecting \(x\) to \(y\) that is a concatenation of finitely many subpaths, each of which lies in a single leaf of the strong stable foliation \(W^s\) or the strong unstable foliaton \(W^u\) corresponding to the respective stable and unstable bundles. The first main result is that if \(r\geq 2\), the subset of nonuniformly hyperbolic diffeomorphisms in \(B^r_\omega(M)\) is open in the \(C^r\)-topology. It is known that this is false if \(r=1\). A diffeomorphism \(f\in B^r_\omega(M)\) is called a \(C^r\)-continuity point for the center Lyapunov exponents \(\lambda^c_1\) and \(\lambda^c_2\) if for every \(f_k\to f\) in \(\text{Diff}^r_\omega(M)\), \(\lambda^c_i(f_k)\to \lambda^c_i(f)\) for \(i=1,2\). The next result is that if \(r\geq 2\), there is a \(C^r\) open and dense subset \(U\) of \(B^r_\omega(M)\) such that every \(g\in U\) is a continuity point for the center Lyapnov exponents in the \(C^r\)-topology. With some additional restrictions, the authors are able to extend their two main results to a subset of the volume-preserving \(C^r\)-diffeomorphisms.