Morse-Smale systems with three nonwandering points (Q653013)

The study of Morse-Smale systems plays important roles in the theory of dynamical systems. It is known that the carrying manifold of Morse-Smale systems whose non-wandering set consists of two points is the sphere of the corresponding dimension and any two orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms are conjugate. The authors give a characterization for the carrying manifold of Morse-Smale systems whose non-wandering set consists of three points. They show that the dimension \(n\) of this closed manifold \(M^n\) can take only the values \(n=2, 4, 8\) or \(16:\) if \(n=2\), then \(M^2\) is the projective plane and if \(n=4,8\) or \(16\), then \(M^n\) is orientable. Moreover, \(M^n\) is homeomorphic to the compactification of the Euclidean space \(R^n\) by means of the \(\frac n2\)-sphere. Another interesting result is that any two Morse-Smale flows whose nonwandering sets consist of three points on a closed 4-manifold \(M^4\) are topologically equivalent, but this is not true for two Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms.