Isolated invariant sets for flows on vector bundles

Abstract

This paper studies isolated invariant sets for linear flows on the projective bundle associated to a vector bundle, e.g., the projective tangent flow to a smooth flow on a manifold. It is shown that such invariant sets meet each fiber, roughly in a disjoint union of linear subspaces. Isolated invariant sets which are intersections of attractors and repellers (Morse sets) are discussed. We show that, over a connected chain recurrent set in the base space, a Morse filtration gives a splitting of the projective bundle into a direct sum of invariant subbundles. To each factor in this splitting there corresponds an interval of real numbers (disjoint from those for other factors) which measures the exponential rate of growth of the orbits in that factor. We use these results to see that, over a connected chain recurrent set, the zero section of the vector bundle is isolated if and only if the flow is hyperbolic. From this, it follows that if no equation in the hull of a linear, almost periodic differential equation has a nontrivial bounded solution then the solution space of each equation has a hyperbolic splitting.