Toeplitz subshifts of finite rank

Abstract

In this paper we study some basic problems about Toeplitz subshifts of finite topological rank. We define the notion of a strong Toeplitz subshift of finite rank $K$ by combining the characterizations of Toeplitz-ness and of finite topological rank $K$ from the point of view of the Bratteli--Vershik representation or from the $\mathcal{S}$-adic point of view. The characterization problem asks if for every $K\geq 2$, every Toeplitz subshift of topological rank $K$ is a strong Toeplitz subshift of rank $K$. We give a negative answer to the characterization problem by constructing a Toeplitz subshift of topological rank $2$ which fails to be a strong Toeplitz subshift of rank $2$. However, we show that the set of all strong Toeplitz subshifts of finite rank is generic in the space of all infinite minimal subshifts. In the second part we consider several classification problems for Toeplitz subshifts of topological rank $2$ from the point of view of descriptive set theory. We completely determine the complexity of the conjugacy problem, the flip conjugacy problem, and the bi-factor problem by showing that, as equivalence relations, they are hyperfinite and not smooth. We also consider the inverse problem for all Toeplitz subshifts. We give a criterion for when a Toeplitz subshift is conjugate to its own inverse, and use it to show that the set of all such Toeplitz subshifts is a meager set in the space of all infinite minimal subshifts. Finally, we show that the automorphism group of any Toeplitz subshift of finite rank is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}\oplus C$ for some finite cyclic group $C$, and for every nontrivial finite cyclic group $C$, $\mathbb{Z}\oplus C$ can be realized as the isomorphism type of an automorphism group of a strong Toeplitz subshift of finite rank greater than $2$.