Non-singular Morse–Smale flows on n-manifolds with attractor–repeller dynamics

Abstract

In the present paper the exhaustive classification up to topological equivalence of non-singular Morse–Smale flows on n-manifolds M n with exactly two periodic orbits is presented. Denote by G 2(M n ) the set of such flows. Let a flow f t : M n → M n belongs to the set G 2(M n ). Hyperbolicity of periodic orbits of f t implies that among them one is an attracting and the other is a repelling orbit. Due to the Poincaré–Hopf theorem, the Euler characteristic of the ambient manifold M n is zero. Only the torus and the Klein bottle can be ambient manifolds for f t in case of n = 2. The authors established that there are exactly two classes of topological equivalence of flows in G 2(M 2) if M 2 is the torus and three classes if M 2 is the Klein bottle. For all odd-dimensional manifolds the Euler characteristic is zero. However, it is known that an orientable three-manifold admits a flow from G 2(M 3) if and only if M 3 is a lens space L p,q . In this paper it is proved that every set G 2(L p,q ) contains exactly two classes of topological equivalence of flows, except the case when L p,q is homeomorphic to the three-sphere or the projective space , where such a class is unique. Also, it is shown that the only non-orientable n-manifold (for n > 2), which admits flows from G 2(M n ) is the twisted I-bundle over the (n − 1)-sphere . Moreover, there are exactly two classes of topological equivalence of flows in . Among orientable n-manifolds only the product of the (n − 1)-sphere and the circle can be ambient manifolds for flows from G 2(M n ) and splits into two topological equivalence classes.