SRB measures and Young towers for surface diffeomorphisms (Q2118834)

\textit{M. Viana} [Doc. Math. Extra Vol., 557--578 (1998; Zbl 0911.58013)] conjectured that if a smooth map has only nonzero Lyapunov exponents at Lebesgue almost every point, then it admits some SRB measure. In this paper, the authors give geometric conditions that are necessary and sufficient for the existence of SRB measures for \(C^{1+\alpha}\) surface diffeomorphisms, thus proving a version of the Viana conjecture. Let \(M\) be a compact boundaryless smooth two-dimensional Riemannian manifold and \(f:M\to M\) be a \(C^{1+\alpha}\) diffeomorphism. An \(f\)-invariant probability measure \(\mu\) is \textit{hyperbolic} if there is a set \(\Lambda\) of nonzero Lyapunov exponent (hence non-uniformly hyperbolic) such that \(f(\Lambda)=\Lambda\) and \(\mu(\Lambda)=1\). Every point \(x\in\Lambda\) has a local stable curve \(V_x^s\) and local unstable curve \(V_x^u\). A set \(A\subset \Lambda\) is \textit{fat} if \[m\left(\bigcup_{x\in A}V_x^s\right)>0,\] where \(m\) is the Lebesgue measure on \(M\). The measure \(\mu\) is an \textit{SRB measure} if it is hyperbolic and every set \(X\subset\Lambda\) with \(\mu(X)=1\) is fat. This is equivalent to the usual definition, while the fatness condition plays a key role in this paper. Roughly speaking, the main theorems say that under some mild recurrence conditions, a fat (nonuniformly) hyperbolic set supports a Young tower, hence it supports an SRB measure. The authors give an original method for constructing first return Young towers, proving that every hyperbolic measure, and in particular every SRB measure, can be lifted to such a tower. This method relies on a new general result on hyperbolic branches and shadowing for pseudo-orbits in nonuniformly hyperbolic sets, which is of independent interest.