A topological characterization of the omega-limit sets of analytic vector fields on open subsets of the sphere

Abstract

In [15], V. Jimenez and J. Llibre characterized, up to homeomorphism, the omega limit sets of analytic vector fields on the sphere and the projective plane. The authors also studied the same problem for open subsets of these surfaces. Unfortunately, an essential lemma in their programme for general surfaces has a gap. Although the proof of this lemma can be amended in the case of the sphere, the plane, the projective plane and the projective plane minus one point (and therefore the characterizations for these surfaces in [8] are correct), the lemma is not generally true, see [15]. Consequently, the topological characterization for analytic vector fields on open subsets of the sphere and the projective plane is still pending. In this paper, we close this problem in the case of open subsets of the sphere.