Cardinality of the Ellis semigroup on compact metric countable spaces (Q2413518)

The Ellis semigroup of a dynamical system \((X,f)\) (where \(X\) is a compact metric space and \(f: X\to X\) is a continuous map) is the pointwise closure of the set of iterates \(\{f^n\mid n\in\mathbb{N}\}\) in the compact space \(X^X\), with binary operation given by composition of functions; it inherits a topology from the space \(X^X\). Here the cardinality of the Ellis semigroup is studied in the case that \(X\) is a countable compact metric space, and conditions that characterize it being finite are given. Other results relate possible cardinalities to dynamical properties of the underlying system involving pre-periodic and periodic points, existence of a dense orbit, and so on. Some algebraic questions are also studied, concerned with ordinal spaces viewed as semigroups with their own ordinal addition operation and the Ellis semigroup.