arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Anna Giordano Bruno.
We give a "limit-free formula" simplifying the computation of the topological entropy for topological automorphisms of totally disconnected locally compact groups. This result allows us to extend several basic properties of the topological entropy known to hold for compact groups.
For a totally disconnected locally compact abelian group, we prove that the topological entropy of a continuous endomorphism coincides with the algebraic entropy of the dual endomorphism with respect to the Pontryagin duality. Moreover, this result is extended to all locally compact abelian groups under the assumption of additivity with respect to some fully invariant subgroups for both the topological and the algebraic entropy.
The notion of entropy appears in many fields and this paper is a survey about entropies in several branches of Mathematics. We are mainly concerned with the topological and the algebraic entropy in the context of continuous endomorphisms of locally compact groups, paying special attention to the case of compact and discrete groups respectively. The basic properties of these entropies, as well as many examples, are recalled. Also new entropy functions are proposed, as well as generalizations of several known definitions and results. Furthermore we give some connections with other topics in Mathematics as Mahler measure and Lehmer Problem from Number Theory, and the growth rate of groups and Milnor Problem from Geometric Group Theory. Most of the results are covered by complete proofs or references to appropriate sources.
In this expository paper we describe an unifying approach for many known entropies in Mathematics. First we recall the notion of semigroup entropy h_S in the category S of normed semigroups and contractive homomorphisms, recalling also its properties. For a specific category X and a functor F from X to S, we have the entropy h_F, defined by the composition of h_S with F, which automatically satisfies the same properties proved for h_S. This general scheme permits to obtain many of the known entropies as h_F, for appropriately chosen categories X and functors F. In the last part we recall the definition and the fundamental properties of the algebraic entropy for group endomorphisms, noting how its deeper properties depend on the specific setting. Finally we discuss the notion of growth for flows of groups, comparing it with the classical notion of growth for finitely generated groups.
In the realm of topological automorphisms of totally disconnected locally compact groups, the scale function introduced by Willis in \cite{Willis} is compared with the topological entropy. We prove that the logarithm of the scale function is always dominated by the topological entropy and we provide examples showing that this inequality can be strict. Moreover, we give a condition equivalent to the equality between these two invariants. Various properties of the scale function, inspired by those of the topological entropy, are presented.
In 1965 Adler, Konheim and McAndrew defined the topological entropy for continuous self-maps of compact spaces. Topological entropy is very well-understood for endomorphisms of compact Abelian groups. A fundamental result in this context is the so-called Yuzvinski Formula, showing that the value of the topological entropy of a full solenoidal automorphism coincides with the Mahler measure of its characteristic polynomial. In two papers of 1979 and 1981 Peters gave a different definition of entropy for automorphisms of locally compact Abelian groups. This notion has been appropriately modified forendomorphisms in two recent papers, where it is called algebraic entropy. The goal of this paper is to prove a perfect analog of the Yuzvinski Formula for the algebraic entropy, namely, the Algebraic Yuzvinski Formula, giving the value of the algebraic entropy of an endomorphism of a finite-dimensional rational vector space as the Mahler measure of its characteristic polynomial. Finally, several applications of the Algebraic Yuzvinski Formula and related open problems are discussed.
Various limit-free formulas are given for the computation of the algebraic and the topological entropy, respectively in the settings of endomorphisms of locally finite discrete groups and of continuous endomorphisms of totally disconnected compact groups. As applications we give new proofs of the connection between the algebraic and the topological entropy in the abelian case and of the connection of the topological entropy with the finite depth for topological automorphisms.
Recently the adjoint algebraic entropy of endomorphisms of abelian groups was introduced and studied. We generalize the notion of adjoint entropy to continuous endomorphisms of topological abelian groups. Indeed, the adjoint algebraic entropy is defined using the family of all finite-index subgroups, while we take only the subfamily of all open finite-index subgroups to define the topological adjoint entropy. This allows us to compare the (topological) adjoint entropy with the known topological entropy of continuous endomorphisms of compact abelian groups. In particular, the topological adjoint entropy and the topological entropy coincide on continuous endomorphisms of totally disconnected compact abelian groups. Moreover, we prove two Bridge Theorems between the topological adjoint entropy and the algebraic entropy using respectively the Pontryagin duality and the precompact duality.
Semitopological isomorphisms of topological groups were introduced by Arnautov, who posed several questions related to compositions of semitopological isomorphisms and the groups G (we call them Arnautov groups) such that for every group topology T on G every semitopological isomorphism with domain (G,T) is necessarily open (i.e., a topological isomorphism). We propose a different approach to these problems by introducing appropriate new notions, necessary for a deeper understanding of Arnautov groups. This allows us to find some partial answers and many examples. In particular, we discuss the relation with minimal groups and non-topologizable groups.
In the general context of functorial topologies, we prove that in the lattice of all group topologies on an abelian group, the infimum between the Bohr topology and the natural topology is the profinite topology. The profinite topology and its connection to other functorial topologies is the main objective of the paper. We are particularly interested in the poset C(G) of all finite-index subgroups of an abelian group G, since it is a local base for the profinite topology of G. We describe various features of the poset C(G) (its cardinality, its cofinality, etc.) and we characterize the abelian groups G for which C(G)\{G} is cofinal in the poset of all subgroups of G ordered by inclusion. Finally, for pairs of functorial topologies T, S we define the equalizer E(T,S), which permits to describe relevant classes of abelian groups in terms of functorial topologies.
The Pinsker subgroup of an abelian group with respect to an endomorphism was introduced in the context of algebraic entropy. Motivated by the nice properties and characterizations of the Pinsker subgroup, we generalize its construction in two directions. We introduce the concept of entropy function h of an abelian category and define the Pinsker radical with respect to h, so that the class of all objects with trivial Pinsker radical is the torsion class of a torsion theory.
The string number of self-maps arose in the context of algebraic entropy and it can be viewed as a kind of combinatorial entropy function. Later on its values for endomorphisms of abelian groups were calculated in full generality. We study its global version for abelian groups, providing several examples involving also Hopfian abelian groups. Moreover, we characterize the class of all abelian groups with string number zero in many cases and discuss its stability properties.
Recently the strings and the string number of self-maps were used in the computation of the algebraic entropy of special group endomorphisms. We introduce two special kinds of strings, and their relative string numbers. We show that a dichotomy holds for all these three string numbers; in fact, they admit only zero and infinity as values on group endomorphisms.
Inspired by an analogous result of Arnautov about isomorphisms, we prove that all continuous surjective homomorphisms of topological groups f:G-->H can be obtained as restrictions of open continuous surjective homomorphisms f':G'-->H, where G is a topological subgroup of G'. In case the topologies on G and H are Hausdorff and H is complete, we characterize continuous surjective homomorphisms f:G-->H when G has to be a dense normal subgroup of G'. We consider the general case when G is requested to be a normal subgroup of G', that is when f is semitopological - Arnautov gave a characterization of semitopological isomorphisms internal to the groups G and H. In the case of homomorphisms we define new properties and consider particular cases in order to give similar internal conditions which are sufficient or necessary for f to be semitopological. Finally we establish a lot of stability properties of the class of all semitopological homomorphisms.
For every finite-to-one map $λ:Γ\toΓ$ and for every abelian group $K$, the generalized shift $σ_λ$ of the direct sum $\bigoplus_ΓK$ is the endomorphism defined by $(x_i)_{i\inΓ}\mapsto(x_{λ(i)})_{i\inΓ}$. In this paper we analyze and compute the algebraic entropy of a generalized shift, which turns out to depend on the cardinality of $K$, but mainly on the function $λ$. We give many examples showing that the generalized shifts provide a very useful universal tool for producing counter-examples.
The new notion of adjoint algebraic entropy of endomorphisms of Abelian groups is introduced. Various examples and basic properties are provided. It is proved that the adjoint algebraic entropy of an endomorphism equals the algebraic entropy of the adjoint endomorphism of the Pontryagin dual. As applications, we compute the adjoint algebraic entropy of the shift endomorphisms of direct sums, and we prove an Addition Theorem for the adjoint algebraic entropy of bounded Abelian groups. A dichotomy is established, stating that the adjoint algebraic entropy of any endomorphism can take only values zero or infinity. As a consequence, we obtain the following surprising discontinuity criterion for endomorphisms: every endomorphism of a compact abelian group, having finite positive algebraic entropy, is discontinuous.
For a set $Γ$, a function $λ:Γ\to Γ$ and a non-trivial abelian group $K$, the generalized shift $σ_λ:K^Γ\to K^Γ$ is defined by $(x_i)_{i\in Γ}\mapsto (x_{λ(i)})_{i\inΓ}$. In this paper we compute the algebraic entropy of $σ_λ$; it is either zero or infinite, depending exclusively on the properties of $λ$.
The algebraic entropy h, defined for endomorphisms f of abelian groups G, measures the growth of the trajectories of non-empty finite subsets F of G with respect to f. We show that this growth can be either polynomial or exponential. The greatest f-invariant subgroup of G where this growth is polynomial coincides with the greatest f-invariant subgroup P(G,f) of G (named Pinsker subgroup of f) such that h(f|_P(G,f))=0. We obtain also an alternative characterization of P(G,f) from the point of view of the quasi-periodic points of f. This gives the following application in ergodic theory: for every continuous injective endomorphism g of a compact abelian group K there exists a largest g-invariant closed subgroup N of K such that g|_N is ergodic; furthermore, the induced endomorphism g' of the quotient K/N has zero topological entropy.