In mathematics, more particularly in the fields of dynamical systems and geometric topology, an Anosov map on a manifold M is a certain type of mapping, from M to itself, with rather clearly marked local directions of "expansion" and "contraction". Anosov systems are a special case of Axiom A systems.
Anosov diffeomorphisms were introduced by D. V. Anosov, who proved that their behaviour was in an appropriate sense generic (when they exist at all).
Three closely related definitions must be distinguished:
A classical example of Anosov diffeomorphism is the Arnold's cat map.
Anosov proved that Anosov diffeomorphisms are structurally stable and form an open subset of mappings (flows) with the C1 topology.
Not every manifold admits an Anosov diffeomorphism; for example, there are no such diffeomorphisms on the sphere . The simplest examples of compact manifolds admitting them are the tori: they admit the so-called linear Anosov diffeomorphisms, which are isomorphisms having no eigenvalue of modulus 1. It was proved that any other Anosov diffeomorphism on a torus is topologically conjugate to one of this kind.
The problem of classifying manifolds that admit Anosov diffeomorphisms turned out to be very difficult, and still as of 2012[update] has no answer. The only known examples are infranil manifolds, and it is conjectured that they are the only ones.
Another open problem is whether every Anosov diffeomorphism is transitive. All known Anosov diffeomorphisms are transitive. A sufficient condition for transitivity is nonwandering: .