Symmetry groups of attractors (Q1332140)

Let \(\Gamma\subset O(n)\) be a finite group acting orthogonally on \(\mathbb{R}^ n\). A subgroup \(\Sigma \subset \Gamma\) is called admissible if there exists a continuous \(\Gamma\)-equivariant mapping \(f:\mathbb{R}^ n \to \mathbb{R}^ n\) with a \(\Sigma\)-symmetric attractor \(A\). The subgroup \(\Sigma\) is strongly admissible if \(f\) and \(A\) can be chosen so that \(A\) is connected. Define \(K_ \Sigma := \{\tau \in \Gamma \setminus \Sigma \mid \dim \text{Fix} (\tau) = n -1\}\) and \(L_ \Sigma := \bigcup \{\text{Fix}(\tau) \mid \tau \in K_ \Sigma\}\). The main result of the paper characterizes admissible and strongly admissible subgroups of \(\Gamma\) in the following way. A subgroup \(\Sigma \subset \Gamma\) is strongly admissible if and only if \(\Sigma\) fixes a connected component of \(\mathbb{R}^ n \setminus L_ \Sigma\). A subgroup \(\Sigma \subset \Gamma\) is admissible if and only if it is a cyclic extension of a strongly admissible subgroup \(\Delta\), that is, \(\Delta\) is normal in \(\Sigma\) and \(\Sigma/ \Delta\) is cyclic.