Flow equivalence of sofic shifts (Q1650032)

We say that two shifts are flow equivalent if there exists a homeomorphism between their mapping tori which preserves the orbits and their orientation. The authors classify certain sofic shifts up to flow equivalence, using invariants of the canonical Fisher cover. Let \(X\) and \(X'\) be irreducible subshifts of finite type which are flow equivalent. If \(Y\) and \(Y'\) are proper subsystems of \(X\) and \(X'\) respectively, which are flow equivalent through \(\varphi: SY \rightarrow SY'\), then it is proved that there exists a flow equivalence \(\tilde{\varphi} : SX \rightarrow SX'\) such that \(\varphi = \tilde{\varphi}|_{SY}\). By using this result, they prove a reduction theorem, which is used to classify the near Markov shifts up to flow equivalence. Moreover, the authors provide a classification of point extension type sofic shifts up to flow equivalence. Finally, they propose procedures to determine whether a sofic shift is of point extension type.