On $C^r$-generic twist maps of $\mathrm {T^2}$

Abstract We consider twist diffeomorphisms of the torus, $f:\mathrm {T^2\rightarrow T^2,}$ and their vertical rotation intervals, $\rho _V(\widehat {f})=[\rho _V^{-},\rho _V^{+}],$ where $\widehat {f}$ is a lift of f to the vertical annulus or cylinder. We show that $C^r$ -generically, for any $r\geq 1$ , both extremes of the rotation interval are rational and locally constant under $C^0$ -perturbations of the map. Moreover, when f is area-preserving, $C^r$ -generically, $\rho _V^{-}<\rho _V^{+}$ . Also, for any twist map f , $\widehat {f}$ a lift of f to the cylinder, if $\rho _V^{-}<\rho _V^{+}=p/q$ , then there are two possibilities: either $\widehat {f}^q(\bullet )-(0,p)$ maps a simple essential loop into the connected component of its complement which is below the loop, or it satisfies the curve intersection property. In the first case, $\rho _V^{+} \leq p/q$ in a $C^0$ -neighborhood of $f,$ and in the second case, we show that $\rho _V^{+}(\widehat {f}+(0,t))>p/q$ for all $t>0$ (that is, the rotation interval is ready to grow). Finally, in the $C^r$ -generic case, assuming that $\rho _V^{-}<\rho _V^{+}=p/q,$ we present some consequences of the existence of the free loop for $\widehat {f}^q(\bullet )-(0,p)$ , related to the description and shape of the attractor–repeller pair that exists in the annulus. The case of a $C^r$ -generic transitive twist diffeomorphism (if such a thing exists) is also investigated.