On the existence of non-hyperbolic ergodic measures as the limit of periodic measures

Abstract

[GIKN] and [BBD1] propose two very different ways for building non hyperbolic measures, [GIKN] building such a measure as the limit of periodic measures and [BBD1] as the $\omega$-limit set of a single orbit, with a uniformly vanishing Lyapunov exponent. The technique in [GIKN] was essentially used in a generic setting, as the periodic orbits were built by small perturbations. It is not known if the measures obtained by the technique in [BBD1] are accumulated by periodic measures. In this paper we use a shadowing lemma from [G]: $\bullet$for getting the periodic orbits in [GIKN] without perturbing the dynamics, $\bullet$for recovering the compact set in [BBD1] with a uniformly vanishing Lyapunov exponent by considering the limit of periodic orbits. As a consequence, we prove that there exists an open and dense subset $\mathcal{U}$ of the set of robustly transitive non-hyperbolic diffeomorphisms far from homoclinic tangencies, such that for any $f\in\mathcal{U}$, there exists a non-hyperbolic ergodic measure with full support and approximated by hyperbolic periodic measures. We also prove that there exists an open and dense subset $\mathcal{V}$ of the set of diffeomorphisms exhibiting a robust cycle, such that for any $f\in\mathcal{V}$, there exists a non-hyperbolic ergodic measure approximated by hyperbolic periodic measures.