Topological entropy in totally disconnected locally compact groups

Abstract

Let $G$ be a topological group, let $\phi$ be a continuous endomorphism of $G$ and let $H$ be a closed $\phi$-invariant subgroup of $G$. We study whether the topological entropy is an additive invariant, that is, $$h_{top}(\phi)=h_{top}(\phi\restriction_H)+h_{top}(\bar\phi)\,,$$ where $\bar\phi:G/H\to G/H$ is the map induced by $\phi$. We concentrate on the case when $G$ is locally compact totally disconnected and $H$ is either compact or normal. Under these hypotheses, we show that the above additivity property holds true whenever $\phi H=H$ and $\ker(\phi)\leq H$. As an application we give a dynamical interpretation of the scale $s(\phi)$, by showing that $\log s(\phi)$ is the topological entropy of a suitable map induced by $\phi$. Finally, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the equality $\log s(\phi)=h_{top}(\phi)$ to hold.