The Hausdorff dual problem for connected groups

It is shown that a connected locally compact group G has a Hausdorff unitary dual space if and only if G is a compact extension of an abelian group. Applications to group C¹-algebras are given.     

Quasi‐convexly dense and suitable sets in the arc component of a compact group

Let G be an abelian topological group. The symbol $\widehat{G}Let G be an abelian topological group. The symbol $\widehat{G}$ denotes the group of all continuous characters $\chi :G\rightarrow {\mathbb T}$ endowed with the compact open topology. A subset E of G is said to be qc‐dense in G provided that χ(E)?φ([? 1/4, 1/4]) holds only for the trivial character $\chi \in \widehat{G}$, where $\varphi : {\mathbb R}\rightarrow {\mathbb T}={\mathbb R}/{\mathbb Z}$ is the canonical homomorphism. A super‐sequence is a non‐empty compact Hausdorff space S with at most one non‐isolated point (to which S converges). We prove that an infinite compact abelian group G is connected if and only if its arc component G_a contains a super‐sequence converging to 0 that is qc‐dense in G. This gives as a corollary a recent theorem of Außenhofer: For a connected locally compact abelian group G, the restriction homomorphism $r:\widehat{G}\rightarrow \widehat{G}_a$ defined by $r(\chi )=\chi \upharpoonright _{G_a}$ for $\chi \in \widehat{G}$, is a topological isomorphism. We show that an infinite compact group G is connected if and only if its arc component G_a contains a super‐sequence converging to the identity that is qc‐dense in G and generates a dense subgroup of G. We also offer a short alternative proof of the result of Hofmann and Morris on the existence of suitable sets of minimal size in the arc component of a compact connected group.     

Almost automorphic symbolic minimal sets without unique ergodicity

Given a metrizable monothetic groupG with generatorg and a suitable closed nowhere dense subsetC of positive Haar measure, we associate a natural compact metric space whose points are almost automorphic symbolic minimal sets. It is then shown that those minimal sets which have positive topological entropy and fail to be uniquely ergodic form a esidual set. The example due to P. Julius [2] of a Toeplitz sequence of positive entropy which, is uniquely ergodic shows that the “residual” conclusion is sharp.     

Simplicity of Skew Group Rings of Abelian Groups

Necessary and sufficient conditions for simplicity of a general skew group ring A ?_σ G are not known. In this article, we show that a skew group ring A ?_σ G, of an abelian group G, is simple if and only if its centre is a field and A is G-simple. As an application, we show that a transformation group (X, G), where X is a compact Hausdorff space acted upon by an abelian group G, is minimal and faithful if and only if its associated skew group algebra C(X) ?_σ G is simple.     

Maximal Abelian Subalgebras of the Hyperfinite Factor,Entropy and Ergodic Theory

Given a free ergodic action of a discrete abelian group G on a measure space (X, μ), the crossed product L ^∞ (X, μ)⋊ G contains two distinguished maximal abelian subalgebras. We discuss what kind of information about the action can be extracted from the positions of these two subalgebras inside the crossed product algebra. Received February 24, 2002, Accepted August 5, 2002     

Numeration systems,fractals and stochastic processes

A numeration system Ω is a compactification of the set of real numbers keeping the actions of addition and positive multiplication in a natural way. That is, Ω is a compact metrizable space with #Ω≥2 to which ℝ acts additively andG acts multiplicatively satisfying the distributive law, whereG is a nontrivial closed multiplicative subgroup of ℝ₊. Moreover, the additive action is minimal and uniquely ergodic with 0-topological entropy, while the multiplication by λ has |log λ|-topological entropy attained uniquely by the unique invariant probability measure under the additive action. We construct Ω as above as a colored tiling space corresponding to a weighted substitution. This framework contains especially the substitution dynamical systems and β-transformation systems with periodic expansion of 1, both of which have discreteG. It also contains systems withG=ℝ₊. We study α-homogeneous cocycles on it with respect to the addition. They are interesting from the point of view of fractal functions or sets as well as self-similar processes. We obtain the zeta-functions of Ω with respect to the multiplication.     

Locally minimal topological groups 1

The aim of this paper is to go deeper into the study of local minimality and its connection to some naturally related properties. A Hausdorff topological group (G,τ) is called locally minimal if there exists a neighborhood U of 0 in τ such that U fails to be a neighborhood of zero in any Hausdorff group topology on G which is strictly coarser than τ. Examples of locally minimal groups are all subgroups of Banach-Lie groups, all locally compact groups and all minimal groups. Motivated by the fact that locally compact NSS groups are Lie groups, we study the connection between local minimality and the NSS property, establishing that under certain conditions, locally minimal NSS groups are metrizable. A symmetric subset of an abelian group containing zero is said to be a GTG set if it generates a group topology in an analogous way as convex and symmetric subsets are unit balls for pseudonorms on a vector space. We consider topological groups which have a neighborhood basis at zero consisting of GTG sets. Examples of these locally GTG groups are: locally pseudoconvex spaces, groups uniformly free from small subgroups (UFSS groups) and locally compact abelian groups. The precise relation between these classes of groups is obtained: a topological abelian group is UFSS if and only if it is locally minimal, locally GTG and NSS. We develop a universal construction of GTG sets in arbitrary non-discrete metric abelian groups, that generates a strictly finer non-discrete UFSS topology and we characterize the metrizable abelian groups admitting a strictly finer non-discrete UFSS group topology. Unlike the minimal topologies, the locally minimal ones are always available on “large” groups. To support this line, we prove that a bounded abelian group G admits a non-discrete locally minimal and locally GTG group topology iff |G|?c.     

Realizations of rotations on an indecomposable compact monothetic group

By the classical Halmos‐von Neumann theorem, each compact monothetic group corresponds to an ergodic dynamical system with discrete spectrum. For such groups we prove two results. We first construct a compact monothetic group which does not split into a direct product of a connected and a totally disconnected compact monothetic group. Then we present a measure preserving dynamical system on the unit square being isomorphic to a rotation on this indecomposable group.     

Essential subgroups of topological groups

We study the class Wof Hausdorff topological groups Gfor which the following two cardinal invariants coincide

ES(G)=min{|H|:H≤ Gdense and essential}

TD(G)=min{|H|:H≤ Gtotally dense}

We prove that W contains the following classes:locally compact abelian groups, compact connected groups, countably compact totally discon¬nected abelian groups, topologically simple groups, locally compact Abelian groups when endowed with their Bohr topology, totally minimal abelian groups and free Abelian topological groups. For all these classes we are also able to giv ean explicit computation of the common value of ESand TD.     

Invariant Cocycles Have Abelian Ranges

 Let R be a discrete nonsingular equivalence relation on a standard probability space , and let V be an ergodic strongly asymptotically central automorphism of R. We prove that every V-invariant cocycle with values in a Polish group G takes values in an abelian subgroup of G. The hypotheses of this result are satisfied, for example, if A is a finite set, a closed, shift-invariant subset, V is the shift, μ a shift-invariant and ergodic probability measure on X, the two-sided tail-equivalence relation on X, a shift-invariant subrelation which is μ-nonsingular, and a shift-invariant cocycle. (Received 15 September 2001)     

Invariant Cocycles Have Abelian Ranges

 Let R be a discrete nonsingular equivalence relation on a standard probability space , and let V be an ergodic strongly asymptotically central automorphism of R. We prove that every V-invariant cocycle with values in a Polish group G takes values in an abelian subgroup of G. The hypotheses of this result are satisfied, for example, if A is a finite set, a closed, shift-invariant subset, V is the shift, μ a shift-invariant and ergodic probability measure on X, the two-sided tail-equivalence relation on X, a shift-invariant subrelation which is μ-nonsingular, and a shift-invariant cocycle.     

On the structure of finite coverings of compact connected groups

Finite-sheeted covering mappings onto compact connected groups are studied. We show that for a covering mapping from a connected Hausdorff topological space onto a compact (in general, non-abelian) group there exists a topological group structure on the covering space such that the mapping becomes a homomorphism of groups. To prove this fact we construct an inverse system of covering mappings onto Lie groups which approximates the given covering mapping. As an application, it is shown that a covering mapping onto a compact connected abelian group G must be a homeomorphism provided that the character group of G admits division by degree of the mapping. We also get a criterion for triviality of coverings in terms of means and prove that each finite covering of G is equivalent to a polynomial covering.     

Classical theorems of probability on Gelfand pairs—Khinchin’s theorems and Cramér’s theorem

We prove Khinchin’s Theorems for Gelfand pairs (G, K) satisfying a condition (*): (a)G is connected; (b)G is almost connected and Ad (G/M) is almost algebraic for some compact normal subgroupM; (c)G admits a compact open normal subgroup; (d) (G,K) is symmetric andG is 2-root compact; (e)G is a Zariski-connectedp-adic algebraic group; (f) compact extension of unipotent algebraic groups; (g) compact extension of connected nilpotent groups. In fact, condition (*) turns out to be necessary and sufficient forK-biinvariant measures on aforementioned Gelfand pairs to be Hungarian. We also prove that Cramér’s theorem does not hold for a class of Gaussians on compact Gelfand pairs. This author was supported by the European Commission (TMR 1998–2001 Network Harmonic Analysis).     

Duality of Fourier type with respect to locally compact Abelian groups

It is shown that a Banach space X has Fourier type p with respect to a locally compact abelian group G if and only if the dual space X′ has Fourier type p with respect to G if and only if X has Fourier type p with respect to the dual group of G. This extends previously known results for the classical groups and the Cantor group to the setting of general locally compact abelian groups. Supported by DFG grant Hi 584/2-2. Partially supported by a DAAD-grant A/02/46571.     

Higher homotopy of groups definable in o-minimal structures

It is known that a definably compact group G is an extension of a compact Lie group L by a divisible torsion-free normal subgroup. We show that the o-minimal higher homotopy groups of G are isomorphic to the corresponding higher homotopy groups of L. As a consequence, we obtain that all abelian definably compact groups of a given dimension are definably homotopy equivalent, and that their universal covers are contractible.     

Normal ergodic actions

The von Neumann-Halmos theory of ergodic transformations with discrete spectrum makes use of the duality theory of locally compact abelian groups to characterize those transformations preserving a probability measure, which are defined by a rotation on a compact abelian group. We use the recently developed duality between general locally compact groups and Hopf-von Neumann algebras to characterize those actions of a locally compact group, preserving a σ-finite measure, which are defined by a dense embedding in another group. They are characterized by the property of normality, previously introduced by the author, and motivated by Mackey's theory of virtual groups. The discrete spectrum theory is readily seen to come out as the special case in which the invariant measure is finite.     

On the arc component of a locally compact Abelian group

For a topological group G, we denote by G _a the arc component of the neutral element and by the character group of G, i.e. the group of all continuous homomorphisms from G into T. We prove the following theorem: Let G be a connected locally compact abelian group and let be the embedding. Then is a topological isomorphism. In particular, the character group of the arc component of a compact abelian group is discrete. Some conclusions will be drawn.     

Ordinary semicascades and their ergodic properties

A relationship is considered between ergodic properties of a discrete dynamical system on a compact metric space Ω and characteristics of companion algebro-topological objects, namely, the Ellis enveloping semigroup E, the Köhler enveloping operator semigroup Γ, and the semigroup G being the closure of the convex hull of Γ in the weak-star topology on the operator space EndC*(Ω). The main results are formulated for ordinary (having metrizable semigroup E) semicascades and for tame dynamical systems determined by the condition cardE ? c. A classification of compact semicascades in terms of topological properties of the semigroups specified above is given.