An open dense set of stably ergodic diffeomorphisms in a neighborhood of a non-ergodic one (Q5930182)

\(X\) is a smooth compact manifold without boundary, and \(r\) is a positive integer. An open set \(S\) of \(r\)-normally hyperbolic diffeomorphisms of \(X\) is identified, and it is shown that there is a \(C^{1}\) open and \(C^{r}\) dense subset of \(S\) such that each diffeomorphism in this subset has the accessibility property. It follows from work of Pugh and Shub that the diffeomorphisms in this subset are ergodic. If \(\mu\) is a smooth volume on \(X\), then similar results hold if one considers only diffeomorphisms that preserve \(\mu\). As an example, the result applies where \(X=M\times S^{1}\), \(A\) is an Anosov diffeomorphism on \(M\), \(R=2\), \(\mu=\nu\times \lambda\) where \(\nu\) is a smooth volume preserved by \(A\) and \(\lambda\) is Lebesgue measure on the circle, and \(S\) is a \(C^{2}\) neighborhood of \(A\times Id\) in the set of \(C^{2}\) \(\mu\)-preserving diffeomorphisms on \(X\). Other examples arise from time-one maps of topologically transitive Anosov flows. Additionally, an example is given of a partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism with the accessibility property that is not topologically transitive. (For a partially hyperbolic diffeomorphism \(f\), accessibility means that any two points of \(X\) can be connected by a piecewise smooth path with each piece being contained in either the stable foliation for \(f\) or the unstable foliation from \(f\)).