In 1975, Li and Yorke [3] found the following fact. Let f: I→ I be a continuous map of the compact interval I of the real line R into itself. If f has a periodic point of minimal period three, then f exhibits chaotic behavior. The above result is generalized by F.R. Marotto [4] in 1978 for the multi-dimensional case as follows. Let f: Rn → Rn be a differentiate map of the n-dimensional Euclidean space Rn (n ≧ 1) into itself. If f has a snap-back repeller, then f exhibits chaotic behavior.

In this paper, we give a generalization of the above theorem of Marotto. Our theorem can also be regarded as a generalization of the Smale’s results on the transversal homoclinic point of a diffeomorphism.

In this paper we give a negative answer to the problem which is suggested in [3]: if a nonwandering set Ω is hyperbolic, are the periodic points dense in Ω?

Newhouse and Palis proved that on two dimensional closed manifolds the answer is positive ([1], [2]).

Hartman proved that a diffeomorphism is topologically conjugate to a linear map on a neighbourhood of a hyperbolic fixed point ([3]). In this paper we study the topological conjugacy problem of a diffeomorphism on a neighbourhood of a hyperbolic set, and prove that for any hyperbolic set there is an arbitrarily slight extension to which a sub-shift of finite type is semi-conjugate.