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An orbit is a dense orbit in a topological space $X$ if its closure is all of $X$. For a forward map orbit, this means that every nonempty open subset contains some iterate $T^{n}x$. A dense orbit visits every region distinguishable by the topology; it need not pass through every point.

An irrational rotation of the circle has dense orbits, whereas a rational rotation has finite periodic orbits. Density is a topological property and does not specify frequencies of visits. Equidistribution and ergodicity make stronger statements involving a specified measure, so neither should be inferred merely from one dense trajectory.

The Livšic theorem turns periodic-orbit data into a global derivative along a hyperbolic flow. Let ${\Phi }_t$ be a transitive Anosov flow on a compact smooth manifold, with generating vector field $F$, and let $h$ be a real Hölder continuous observable. There is a Hölder continuous function $u$, differentiable along flow lines, satisfyingif and only if ${\int }_0^{T}h({\Phi }_{t}p)dt=0$ for every periodic orbit $p$ of period $T$. The solution preserves the Hölder exponent.^[ref]

Necessity is immediate by putting ${\Phi }_{T}p=p$ in the identity. Two solutions differ by a continuous invariant function. Transitivity supplies a dense orbit; their difference is constant on that orbit, and continuity makes it constant everywhere. Thus the solution is unique up to an additive constant.

The harder sufficiency argument defines $u({\Phi }_t{x}_0)$ by integrating $h$ along a dense orbit. The Anosov closing lemma converts a sufficiently close return into a nearby periodic trajectory. Its vanishing integral and exponential shadowing bound the discrepancy between the endpoint values in terms of their distance. This gives Hölder control on the dense orbit and permits extension to the whole manifold.

When both the flow and $h$ are smooth, a separate regularity theorem gives smooth $u$. This does not follow merely from the preceding continuity argument.^[ref] The theorem is named for A. N. Livšic.