The almost Borel structure of surface diffeomorphisms, Markov shifts and their factors (Q2403283)

Summary: Extending work of Hochman [Acta Appl. Math. 126, No. 1, 187--201 (2013; Zbl 1339.37007) ], we study the almost-Borel structure, i.e., the nonatomic invariant probability measures, of symbolic systems and surface diffeomorphisms.{ }We first classify Markov shifts and characterize them as strictly universal with respect to a natural family of classes of Borel systems. We then study their continuous factors showing that a low entropy part is almost-Borel isomorphic to a Markov shift but that the remaining part is much more diverse, even for finite-to-one factors. However, we exhibit a new condition which we call `Bowen type' which gives complete control of those factors.{ }This last result applies to and was motivated by the symbolic covers of Sarig. We find complete numeric invariants for Borel isomorphism of \(C^{1+}\) surface diffeomorphisms modulo zero entropy measures; for those admitting a totally ergodic measure of positive (not necessarily maximal) entropy, we get a classification up to almost-Borel isomorphism.