Rescaled-expansive flows: unstable sets and topological entropy (Q6946393)

In this paper, the authors introduce and explore a rescaled theory of local stable and unstable sets for rescaled-expansive flows and its applications to topological entropy. To be precise, let \(M\) be a compact and boundary-less smooth Riemannian manifold, and denote by \(d\) the distance on \(M\) induced from the Riemannian metric \(\| \cdot \|\) on \(TM\). A \(C^1\)-flow \(\phi\) on \(M\) generates a velocity vector field \(X\). Let \(\mathcal{N}(x) = \{ v \in TxM : v \perp X(x) \}\) be the normal space of a regular point \(x \in M\) for \(\phi\), and put \(\mathcal{N}_r(x) = \mathcal{N}(x) \cap \mathcal{B}_r(0)\), where \(\mathcal{B}_r(0) \subset T_xM\) is the ball with radius \(r > 0\) centered at \(0\). For any regular point \(x\), there is \(r_x > 0\) such that the set \(N_{r_x}(x) = \exp_x(\mathcal{N}_{r_x}(x))\) is a cross-section through \(x\). By the tubular flow theorem, for \(\epsilon > 0\), there are \(r_x > 0\) and a continuous function \(\tau : N_{r_x}(x) \to \mathbb{R}\) such that \(\phi_{\tau(y)}(y) \in N_\epsilon(\phi_t(x))\) for \(y \in N_{r_x}(x)\) and \(\tau(x) = t\), so that we define the holonomy map \(P_{x,t} : N_{r_x}(x) \to N_\epsilon(\phi_t(x))\) by \(P_{x,t}(y) = \phi_{\tau(y)}(y)\). Finally, set \(N^r_\epsilon (x) = N_{\epsilon \| X(x) \|}(x)\).\N\NUnder the above notation, \textit{X. Wen} and \textit{L. Wen} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 371, No. 5, 3179--3207 (2019; Zbl 1409.37025)] proved, for instance, that there exist \(L > 0\) and \(\beta_0 > 0\) such that for \(0 < \beta < \beta_0\), \(t > 0\) and a regular point \(x\), \(P_{x,t} : N^r_{\beta/{L^t}}(x) \to N^r_\beta(\phi_t(x))\) is well defined and injective. Moreover, for any \(y \in N^r_{\beta/{L^t}}(x)\), \(d(\phi_s(x), \phi_s(y)) \leq \beta \| X(\phi_s(x)) \|\) for \(0 \leq s \leq t\) (the same statement is valid for \(t < 0\)). Based on this, they introduced a rescaled version of expansiveness by considering that the distance of separation of the orbits is rescaled by the size of the velocity vector field as in the following way. A flow \(\phi\) is R-expansive (or rescaled expansive) if for every \(\epsilon > 0\), there is \(\delta > 0\) such that the following holds: if \(x, y \in M\), \(\rho : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) is a increasing continuous function and \(d(\phi_t(x), \phi_{\rho(t)}(y)) \leq \delta \| X(\phi_t(x)) \|\) for \(t \in \mathbb{R}\), then \(\phi_{\rho(t)}(y) \in \phi_{[t-\epsilon, t+\epsilon]}(x)\) for \(t \in \mathbb{R}\).\N\NA flow \(\phi\) is \(k^\ast\)-expansive if for every \(\epsilon > 0\), there is \(\delta > 0\) such that the following holds: if \(x, y \in M\), \(\rho: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) is an increasing homemorphism and \(d(\phi_t(x), \phi_{\rho(t)}(y)) \leq \delta\) for \(t \in \mathbb{R}\), then there are \(t_0, s \in \mathbb{R}\) such that \(|s| \leq \epsilon\) and \(\phi_{\rho(t_0)}(y) = \phi_{t_0+s}(x)\). It is known that the geometric Lorenz attractor is \(k^\ast\)-expansive, and that \(k^\ast\)-expansiveness implies R-expansiveness.\N\NLet \(\phi\) be an R-expansive flow. In the present paper, the authors introduced a rescaled version of the local stable and unstable sets, and proved the following results by analyzing the connected components of them. If there exists a non-singular Lyapunov stable set \(\Lambda \subset M\) that is not a finite union of compact orbits, then the topological entropy \(h(\phi)\) is positive. Suppose \(\phi\) is a \(k^\ast\)-expansive and \(\Lambda\) is a non-singular Lyapunov stable subset of \(M\). As a corollary of the above result, if \(\Lambda\) is not a finite union of periodic orbits, then \(h(\phi) > 0\).