Dynamics of surface diffeomorphisms relative to homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits

Abstract

The Nielsen-Thurston theory of surface diffeomorphisms shows that useful dynamical information can be obtained about a surface diffeomorphism from a finite collection of periodic orbits.In this paper, we extend these results to homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits of saddle points. These orbits are most readily computed and studied as intersections of unstable and stable manifolds comprising homoclinic or heteroclinic tangles in the surface. We show how to compute a map of a one-dimensional space similar to a train-track which represents the isotopy-stable dynamics of the surface diffeomorphism relative to a tangle. All orbits of this one-dimensional representative are globally shadowed by orbits of the surface diffeomorphism, and periodic, homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits of the one-dimensional representative are shadowed by similar orbits in the surface.By constructing suitable surface diffeomorphisms, we prove that these results are optimal in the sense that the topological entropy of the one-dimensional representative is the greatest lower bound for the entropies of diffeomorphisms in the isotopy class.