Embedding topological dynamical systems with periodic points in cubical shifts

According to a conjecture of Lindenstrauss and Tsukamoto, a topological dynamical system $(X,T)$ is embeddable in the $d$-cubical shift $(([0,1]^{d})^{\mathbb{Z}},\text{shift})$ if both its mean dimension and periodic dimension are strictly bounded by $d/2$. We verify the conjecture for the class of systems admitting a finite-dimensional non-wandering set and a closed set of periodic points. This class of systems is closely related to systems arising in physics. In particular, we prove an embedding theorem for systems associated with the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations of fluid mechanics. The main tool in the proof of the embedding result is the new concept of local markers. Continuing the investigation of (global) markers initiated in previous work it is shown that the marker property is equivalent to a topological version of the Rokhlin lemma. Moreover, new classes of systems are found to have the marker property, in particular, extensions of aperiodic systems with a countable number of minimal subsystems. Extending work of Lindenstrauss we show that, for systems with the marker property, vanishing mean dimension is equivalent to the small boundary property.