Some isometry groups of the Urysohn space (Q2433747)

This paper is concerned with the isometry group \(Aut\, ({\mathbf U})\) of the Urysohn space: the unique (up to isometry) complete separable metric space \textbf{U} that is both homogeneous (any isometry between finite subsets of \textbf{U} can be extended to an isometry of \textbf{U}), and universal (every complete separable metric space can be embedded in \textbf{U}). The authors investigate \(Aut\, ({\mathbf U})\) as well as some of its subgroups. The main tool is the universal metric space \textbf{QU} (the unique countable homogeneous metric space with rational distances) which is characterized by the following property: if \(A\) and \(B\) are finite metric spaces with rational distances with \(A\subseteq B\), then any embedding of \(A\) in \textbf{QU} can be extended to an embedding of \(B\). The authors show that the isometry group of \textbf{QU}, \(Aut\, ({\mathbf{QU}})\), is a dense subgroup of \(Aut\, {\mathbf U}\) in the weak topology. This permits the authors to show among other things the following result: there is an isometry \(g\in Aut({\mathbf U})\) such that the \(\langle g \rangle\)-orbit of some point \(x\) (i.e., the set \(\{g^{n}x\, \mid\, n\in \mathbb{Z}\})\) is dense in \textbf{U}; in this case the \(\langle g \rangle\)-orbit of each point is dense in \textbf{U}. Other interesting results are: (1) there are transitive Abelian groups of isometries of \textbf{U} not of finite exponent, (2) the group \(Aut ({\mathbf{QU}})\) contains \(2^{\aleph_{0}}\) conjugacy classes of isometries which permute the points in a single cycle. Moreover, representatives of these classes remain non-conjugate in \(Aut {\mathbf U}\), (3) there are Abelian groups of isometries of \textbf{U} of exponent \(2\), (4) there exist unbounded isometries of \textbf{QU} (and hence of \textbf{U}), and (5) there is a subgroup \(F\) of \(Aut (\mathbf{QU})\) which acts faithfully and homogeneously on \textbf{QU} and is homomorphic to the free group of countable rank. (This provides a concrete dense subgroup of \(Aut ({\mathbf U})\) which is a free group of countable rank.)