Monodromy and dynamical systems (Q578680)

The main purpose of this paper is to give a new proof of the Monodromy Theorem [see, e.g., \textit{A. Grothendieck}, Groupes de monodromie en géométrie algébrique, Lect. Notes Math. 288, 313-523 (1972; Zbl 0248.14006)], in a way which provides considerable new insights and leads to various generalizations of known results on algebraically finite (AF) surface transformations. First, an AF-notion is introduced for a diffeomorphism and an isotopy class of diffeomorphisms on a compact smooth manifold. It is shown that such a diffeomorphism f induces a quasiunipotent action \(f^*\) on cohomology, which is a generalization of Nielsen's theorem on AF surface transformations. The polynomial growth of forms under f is used to bound the size of the Jordan blocks of \(f^*\), thus leading to a generalization of known estimates for the Jordan blocks of the monodromy action and a new result for AF surface transformations. Further extensions are given to the case of cohomology with twisted coefficients. The monodromy theorem is proved using essentially an approximation of an AF-system by a Morse-Smale one, combined with Shub's result that the cohomology action of a Morse-Smale diffeomorphism is quasiunipotent. As a by-product of the present approach, it follows that Nielsen's theorem has no converse. It is also shown that the sequence of Lefschetz numbers of an AF diffeomorphism has a simple geometric description. Finally, the author computes Reidemeister torsion from the closed orbits of an AF and Morse-Smale flow.