English

There exist transitive piecewise smooth vector fields on $\mathbb{S}^2$ but not robustly transitive

Dynamical Systems 2022-06-29 v1

Abstract

It is well known that smooth (or continuous) vector fields cannot be topologically transitive on the sphere §2\S^2. Piecewise-smooth vector fields, on the other hand, may present non-trivial recurrence even on §2\S^2. Accordingly, in this paper the existence of topologically transitive piecewise-smooth vector fields on §2\S^2 is proved, see Theorem \ref{teorema-principal}. We also prove that transitivity occurs alongside the presence of some particular portions of the phase portrait known as {\it sliding region} and {\it escaping region}. More precisely, Theorem \ref{main:transitivity} states that, under the presence of transitivity, trajectories must interchange between sliding and escaping regions through tangency points. In addition, we prove that every transitive piecewise-smooth vector field is neither robustly transitive nor structural stable on §2\S^2, see Theorem \ref{main:no-transitive}. We finish the paper proving Theorem \ref{main:general} addressing non-robustness on general compact two-dimensional manifolds.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.12035,
  title  = {There exist transitive piecewise smooth vector fields on $\mathbb{S}^2$ but not robustly transitive},
  author = {Rodrigo D Euzébio and Joaby S. Jucá and Régis Varão},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.12035},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T22:37:25.599Z