Generic families of circle diffeomorphisms have many coexisting periodic orbits

Abstract

We prove that for a generic family of circle diffeomorphisms every parameter value that corresponds to an irrational rotation number is approximated by parameter values for which the diffeomorphisms have arbitrarily large finite numbers of periodic orbits. This phenomenon implies that families where irrational rotation numbers appear are not weakly structurally stable. Moreover, we prove that any locally residual set of one-parameter families with nonconstant rotation number yields a continuum of weak equivalence classes of families.