A volume preserving diffeomorphism with essential coexistence of zero and nonzero Lyapunov exponents (Q2376057)

It is known that an analogue to KAM theory holds in the category of volume preserving \(C^r\)~diffeomorphisms on any manifold with large enough \(r\), namely, that \(C^r\)~diffeomorphims which possess positive volume sets of codimension~\(1\) invariant tori, with the dynamics on each invariant tori \(C^1\) conjugated to a Diophantine rotation and zero Lyapunov exponents on each of the invariant tori, can be found in open sets in the \(C^r\) topology [\textit{C.-Q. Chen} and \textit{Y.-S. Sun}, Celestial Mech. Dyn. Astron. 47, No. 3, 275--292 (1990; Zbl 0705.70013); \textit{J.-C. Yoccoz}, Astérisque. 206, 311--344 (Exp. No. 754) (1992; Zbl 0791.58044)]. Outside the set of invariant tori it is expected that the Lyapunov exponents will be nonzero and that the system will not have too many ergodic components, countably many at most. The authors, in the present paper, address this last problem, that is, the coexistence of chaotic and regular behavior in sets of positive measure in volume preserving diffeomorphisms. Their main result states that there exists a \(C^{\infty}\)~diffeomorphism \(P\) on a compact smooth Riemannian \(5\)-dimensional manifold, arbitrarily \(C^1\)~close to the identity, preserving the Riemannian volume and homotopic to the identity, such that \(P\) is ergodic on an open and dense subset \(G\), with measure strictly smaller than the measure of the manifold (in fact \(P_{\mid G}\) is a Bernoulli diffeomorphism), with nonzero Lyapunov exponents for almost every \(x\in G\) and such that the complement \(G^c\) of \(G\) has positive volume, \(P_{\mid G^c} = \text{Id}\) and the Lyapunov exponents of \(P\) on \(G^c\) are all zero. In the example, the set \(G^c\) has codimension two, being the direct product of a 3-dimensional smooth compact manifold and a Cantor set of positive volume in a 2 torus. The construction of such a map consists in a sequence of perturbations of a particular initial map, namely a \(C^{\infty}\) volume-preserving diffeomorphism~\(T\) on a \(5\)-dimensional compact manifold. This initial map, which is related to a flow, is homotopic to the identity and is in fact the identity on an invariant compact subset of the manifold of positive measure, \(G^{c}\). On the complement of this subset, \(T\) is partially hyperbolic with one-dimensional strong stable and unstable directions and \(3\)-dimensional center ones. Along the center directions, \(DT\) behaves as an isometry and, hence, has zero Lyapunov exponents. The subspaces associated to this splitting happen to be integrable to suitable transverse foliations of \(G\). Since the set \(G\) is open, partial hyperbolicity is not uniform but pointwise [\textit{J. Chen}, Discrete Contin. Dyn. Sys. 32, No. 12, 4149--4170 (2012; Zbl 1256.37024)]. This fact is one of the main difficulties of the construction, which is overcome by using ``gentle'' perturbations of \(T\), that is, perturbations that coincide with \(T\) outside a neighborhood of the Cantor set \(G^{c}\). The point is that for these perturbations, the strong stable and stable directions are integrable to strong stable and unstable foliations which are uniformly transverse to each other, the Lyapunov exponents are positive, resp. negative, along the unstable, resp. stable, directions and any small enough perturbation of the map is also pointwise partially hyperbolic. In a second step, \(T\) is perturbed to a \(C^{\infty}\) volume-preserving diffeomorphism \(Q\), differing from \(T\) in points far from~\(G^{c}\). For this map \(Q\), the average Lyapunov exponents in the central directions are either positive, for points in \(G\), or zero, for points in \(G^{c}\). At this point, \(Q_{\mid G}\) is not ergodic. In the last step, \(Q\) is perturbed into a \(C^{\infty}\) volume preserving diffeomorphism, \(P\), pointwise partially hyperbolic on \(G\), with three transverse continuous foliations, strongly unstable, strongly stable and central. The map \(P\) is the limit of a sequence \(\{P_n\}\), of perturbations of \(Q\) such that each map of the sequence coincides with \(T\) outside some open invariant set \(U_n \subset G\), and has the ``accessibility property'' through its stable and unstable foliations, that is, any two points in \(U_n\) can be connected by a path which is formed by pieces of the strong stable and unstable manifold. The map \(P\) is not a gentle perturbation of~\(T\), unlike the maps \(P_n\), but it is shown that it satisfies the properties of the pointwise partially hyperbolic maps described above. It is also proven that \(P\) has the accessibility property on \(G\), that the average Lyapunov exponents of \(P_{\mid G}\) in the central directions are still positive and indeed are positive on a subset of positive volume. Moreover, it is shown that \(P_{\mid G}\) is ergodic and in fact a Bernoulli diffeomorphism. The paper is structured in several layers of technical details, each section providing the proofs of the results stated in the previous one but relying on claims to be proved in the subsequent ones.