On<i>C</i>^<i>r</i>-closing for flows on 2-manifolds (Q4521385)

This paper deals with the well known open problem ``\({ \mathcal C}^2\)-closing lemma'' for \({\mathcal C}^r\) vector fields on a smooth compact manifold \(M\), \({\mathcal X}^r(M).\) It reads as follows: Let \(r\geq 2\) be an integer, \(X\in{\mathcal X}^r(M)\) and \(p\) be a non-wandering point of \(X.\) There exists \(Y \in{\mathcal X}^r(M)\) arbitrarily close to \(X\) in the \({\mathcal C}^r\)-topology so that \(p\) belongs to a periodic orbit of \(Y.\) We also recall the following definition: A bijective map \(E:[0,1)\to[0,1)\) is called an interval exchange transformation (IET) if there exists a finite sequence \(0=a_1<a_2<\cdots<a_m<a_{m+1}=1\) such that, for all \(i\in\{1,2,\ldots,m\}\) and for all \(x\in[a_i,a_{i+1}),\) \(E(x)=E(a_i)+x-a_i,\) and moreover, \(E\) is discontinuous at exactly \(a_2,a_3,\ldots,a_m.\) This space has associated a natural measure, which is described in the paper. The main result of the paper is the following nice Theorem: For some full measure subset \({\mathcal B}\) of the set of IET the following is satisfied. Let \(X\) be a \({\mathcal C}^r,\) \(1\leq r\leq\infty,\) vector field, with finitely many singularities, on a compact orientable surface \(M.\) Given a non-trivial recurrent point \(p\in M\) of \(X,\) the holonomy map around \(p\) is semi-conjugate to an IET, \(E:[0,1)\to[0,1).\) If \(E\in{\mathcal B}\) then there exists a \({\mathcal C}^r\) vector field \(Y,\) arbitrarily close to \(X,\) in the \({\mathcal C}^r\)-topology, such that \(Y\) has a closed trajectory passing through \(p.\) Note that when \(M\) is a compact surface it has been already noticed by \textit{M. Peixoto} [Topology 1, 101-120 (1962; Zbl 0107.07103)], that the \({\mathcal C}^r\) closing is just a problem for non-trivial recurrent points.