A note on Anosov homeomorphisms (Q2306326)

Anosov homeomorphisms are the topological analogue of Anosov diffeomorphisms, in the sense that every map that topologically conjugates to an Anosov diffeomorphism is in fact an Anosov homeomorphism. The typical example is the diffeomorphism induced by \(\begin{pmatrix} 2 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 \end{pmatrix}\) on the \(2\)-torus \(\mathbb{R}^2 / \mathbb{Z}^2\), also known as Arnold's cat map. These diffeomorphisms were studied for the first time in [\textit{D. V. Anosov}, Proc. Steklov Inst. Math. 90, 235 p. (1967; Zbl 0176.19101)], whereas their topological counterparts where introduced in [\textit{N. Aoki} and \textit{K. Hiraide}, Topological theory of dynamical sytems. Recent advances. Amsterdam: North-Holland (1994; Zbl 0798.54047)]. After more that \(50\) years, the dynamical properties of Anosov diffeomorphisms are still not fully understood. One of the defining properties of Anosov homeomorphisms is the pseudo-orbit tracing property or shadowing property. Vaguely said, it states that any sequence of points which is almost an orbit lies close to an actual orbit. The present paper gives a short argument for the well-known fact that for expansive maps on compact spaces the shadowing property only has to be checked for sequences which fail to be an orbit at only one point in the sequence and for one fixed constant. The classical way of showing this uses the existence of a hyperbolic metric, as described in [\textit{A. Fathi}, Commun. Math. Phys. 126, No. 2, 249--262 (1989; Zbl 0819.58026)]. The clever step in the paper is to show that being expansive is equivalent to a property which reduces checking the shadowing property for a fixed constant. Combining this insight with an induction argument then finishes the short and nice proof.