Burnside problem for measure preserving groups and for 2-groups of toral homeomorphisms (Q2439356)

A group \(G\) is said to be periodic if every \(g\in G\) has finite order, that is, if there exists a positive integer \(n\) with \(g^n=\mathrm{Id}\). One of the oldest problems in group theory was first posed by William Burnside in 1902: ``Let \(G\) be a finitely generated periodic group. Is \(G\) necessarily a finite group?'' In 1911, Schur proved that this is true for subgroups of \(\mathrm{GL}(k,\mathbb C)\), \(k\in\mathbb N\). But, in general, according to Golod the answer is negative. The Burnside problem is still open for groups of homeomorphisms (or diffeomorphisms) on closed manifolds. Very few examples are known. In this paper the authors proves that a finitely generated periodic group of homeomorphisms on the 2-torus that preserves a probability measure \(\mu\) is finite. Moreover if the group consists of homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity, then it is abelian and acts freely on \(\mathbb{T}^2\). In the appendix, the authors show that every finitely generated 2-group of toral homeomorphisms is finite.