Entropy of Gaussian actions for countable Abelian groups (Q4222623)

The basic result on entropy of Gaussian actions (a Gaussian automorphism has zero entropy or infinite entropy, with the infinite case occurring if and only if the spectral measure of the automorphism is not singular with respect to Lebesgue measure on the circle) is extended to many if not all countable abelian groups. The entropy of a Gaussian measure-preserving \({\mathbb Z}^d\)-action has been computed by \textit{T. de la Rue} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 317, 191-194 (1993; Zbl 0785.60024)]. Here Gaussian \(A\)-actions, for \(A\) a countable abelian group, are considered, and it is shown that if \(A\) satisfies a technical condition (the statement that this always holds is called ``Thouvenot's conjecture'' here) then the \(A\)--action has entropy zero or infinity and zero entropy occurs if and only if the spectral measure of the action is singular with respect to Haar measure on the compact dual group \(\hat{A}\). The technical condition placed on the group \(A\) is that the spectrum of any positive entropy \(A\)--action be Haar countable in the orthocomplement of \(L^2(\pi)\), where \(\pi\) is the Pinsker algebra of the action, and it is conjectured that all countable abelian groups have this property. Cases for which this is known and background on the problem may be found in the paper of \textit{B. Kamiński} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 124, No. 5, 1533-1537 (1996; Zbl 0872.28007)].