The discriminant invariant of Cantor group actions (Q290618)

The authors investigate the dynamical and geometric properties of weak solenoids. An interesting and not so easy problem is to detect when a weak solenoid is homogeneous. Here a topological space \(X\) is homogeneous if for all \(x,y\in X\) there is a homeomorphism \(f: X\to X\) such that \(f(x) = y\). It is known that some but not all weak solenoids are homogeneous. It was shown for example by \textit{R. Fokkink} and \textit{L. Oversteegen} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 354, No. 9, 3743--3755 (2002; Zbl 0998.54018)] that the group chain \(\{G_i\}_{i\geq 0}\) associated to a weak solenoid \(S\) is weakly normal if and only if \(S\) is homogeneous. In general it is difficult to detect weak normality, and so the first point of this paper is to obtain a computable invariant of a group chain which reveals weak normality. The authors approach to this problem is by using ideas in topological dynamics to define invariants of the conjugate equivalence class of the group chain. They make very clever use of the Ellis semigroup of continuous actions and then investigate the relationship between non-homogeneity of a weak solenoid and its so-called discriminant invariant. In addition to this, several other interesting results are obtained.