On diffeomorphisms of compact 2-manifolds with all nonwandering points periodic

The aim of the present paper is to study conditions under which all the non-wandering points are periodic points, for a discrete dynamical system of two variables defined on a compact manifold. We include a survey of known results in all dimensions, and study the remaining open question in dimension two. We present two results, one positive and one negative. The negative result: we construct a Kupka–Smale diffeomorphism in ${\mathbb{R}}^2$ (which can be extended to a diffeomorphism of the sphere) with a closed set of periodic points that differs from the set of nonwandering points. The positive result: we present a condition on the widely studied H'{e}non family which guarantees that all nonwandering points are periodic. Finally, we close by describing what future work may be needed to resolve our broad goals.