The entropy conjecture for diffeomorphisms away from tangencies (Q388763)

Given a differentiable map \(f:M\to M\), where \(M\) is a compact manifold, the entropy conjecture, by \textit{M. Shub} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 80, 27--41 (1974; Zbl 0305.58014)], relates the spectral radius of the action induced by~\(f\) on the real homology groups of~\(M\) with the topological entropy of \(f\). More concretely, if \(m= \dim M\), \(f_{*,k} :H_k(M,\mathbb{R})\to H_k(M,\mathbb{R})\), \(0\leq k \leq m\), is the action induced by \(f\) on the real homology groups of \(M\) and \({\text{sp}}(f_*) = \max_{k} {\text{sp}}(f_{*,k})\), where \({\text{sp}}(f_{*,k})\) is the spectral radius of \(f_{*,k}\), the conjecture claims that \[ \log {\text{sp}}(f_*) \leq h(f), \] being~\(h(f)\) the topological entropy of~\(f\). The authors prove that the conjecture holds for every \(C^1\) diffeomorphism of~\(M\) away from tangencies, in the following sense. A diffeomorphism has tangencies if it has a homoclinic tangency, that is, a homoclinic point to a periodic orbit which is non-transverse. If the set of \(C^1\) diffeomorphisms on~\(M\) with tangencies is denoted by \({\text{HT}}\) and the set of \(C^1\) diffeomorphisms by \({\text{Diff}}(M)\), the conjecture is proved to hold for any \(f\in {\text{Diff}}(M) \setminus \overline{{\text{HT}}}\). The theorem improves the knowledge about the entropy conjecture. This conjecture is known to hold for an open and dense subset of the homeomorphisms on~\(M\), although Shub already in [Zbl 0305.58014] showed a Lipschitz counterexample. The conjecture holds for \(C^{\infty}\) maps [\textit{Y. Yomdin}, Isr. J. Math. 57, 285--300 (1987; Zbl 0641.54036)]. There exist also weaker versions of the conjecture. The main ingredient of the proof of this version of the entropy conjecture is the fact that every \(f\in {\text{Diff}}(M) \setminus \overline{\text{HT}}\) is entropy expansive. Since, for entropy expansive maps, the map \(\mu \mapsto h_{\mu}(f)\), where \(\mu\) belongs to the space of invariant probabilities, is upper semicontinuous, one has that, for \(f\in {\text{Diff}}(M) \setminus \overline{\text{HT}}\), there is some invariant probability such that \(h_{\mu}(f) = h(f)\). Also, the topological entropy is upper semicontinuous in \({\text{Diff}}(M) \setminus \overline{\text{HT}}\). Combining these facts with the main result in [Zbl 0641.54036] yields the result. The idea of entropy expansiveness is crucial in their proof and maps close to tangencies may not have this property. The authors show that their result sharp in this sense since there is a residual set \(R\subset {\text{Diff}}(M)\) such that if \(f\in R\cap \overline{{\text{HT}}}\) then \(f\) is not entropy expansive.