Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2013
In this paper we consider ${C}^{1+ \epsilon } $ area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the torus
$f$, either homotopic to the identity or to Dehn twists. We suppose that
$f$ has a lift
$\widetilde {f} $ to the plane such that its rotation set has interior and prove, among other things, that if zero is an interior point of the rotation set, then there exists a hyperbolic
$\widetilde {f} $-periodic point
$\widetilde {Q} \in { \mathbb{R} }^{2} $ such that
${W}^{u} (\widetilde {Q} )$ intersects
${W}^{s} (\widetilde {Q} + (a, b))$ for all integers
$(a, b)$, which implies that
$ \overline{{W}^{u} (\widetilde {Q} )} $ is invariant under integer translations. Moreover,
$ \overline{{W}^{u} (\widetilde {Q} )} = \overline{{W}^{s} (\widetilde {Q} )} $ and
$\widetilde {f} $ restricted to
$ \overline{{W}^{u} (\widetilde {Q} )} $ is invariant and topologically mixing. Each connected component of the complement of
$ \overline{{W}^{u} (\widetilde {Q} )} $ is a disk with diameter uniformly bounded from above. If
$f$ is transitive, then
$ \overline{{W}^{u} (\widetilde {Q} )} = { \mathbb{R} }^{2} $ and
$\widetilde {f} $ is topologically mixing in the whole plane.