Expansive algebraic actions of countable Abelian groups (Q2494357)

Let \(G\) be a countable abelian group, \(X\) a compact metrizable abelian group and \(\alpha\) an action of \(G\) by automorphisms \(\alpha_g \) of \(X\). The dynamical system \((X,\alpha )\) is expansive if there is a neighbourhood \(N\) of \(0\) in \(X\) such that \(\cap_{g\in G} \alpha_g (N)=\{ 0\}\). The paper gives an algebraic characterization of expansive actions of arbitrary countable abelian groups on compact abelian groups: Let \(\alpha\) be an action of a countable abelian group \(G\) by automorphisms of a compact abelian group \(X\). Then \((X,\alpha )\) is expansive iff the Pontryagin dual group \(M\) is a finitely generated \({\mathbb Z}[G]\)-module and, as \(\alpha\) runs through the annihilators of a set of generators of \(M\), there is no ring homomorphism \(\phi :{\mathbb Z}[G]/\alpha \rightarrow {\mathbb C}\) for which \(\phi ([\bar G])\) is a subgroup of the unit circle. (Here \({\bar G}\) denotes the image of \(G\) under the natural quotient map.) This naturally extends the classification of expansive algebraic \({\mathbb Z}^d\)-actions given by Schmidt using complex varieties. There are applications to valuations and integral domains.