A Geometric Criterion for Positive Topological Entropy¶II: Homoclinic Tangencies

Abstract:

In a series of important papers [GS1,GS2] Gavrilov and Shilnikov established a topological conjugacy between a surface diffeomorphism having a dissipative hyperbolic periodic point with certain types of quadratic homoclinic tangencies and the full shift on two symbols, thus exhibiting horseshoes near a tangential homoclinic point. In this note, which should be viewed of as an addendum to [BW] we extend this result by showing that such a diffeomorphism with a one-sided isolated homoclinic tangency having any order contact, possible with infinite order contact, possesses a horseshoe near the homoclinic point.