Computability, Noncomputability, and Hyperbolic Systems

In this paper we study the computability of the stable and unstable manifolds of a hyperbolic equilibrium point. These manifolds are the essential feature which characterizes a hyperbolic system. We show that (i) locally these manifolds can be computed, but (ii) globally they cannot (though we prove they are semi-computable). We also show that Smale’s horseshoe, the first example of a hyperbolic invariant set which is neither an equilibrium point nor a periodic orbit, is computable.