Symbolic representations of nonexpansive group automorphisms (Q814141)

If \(\alpha\) is an irreducible nonexpansive ergodic automorphism of a compact abelian group \(X\) (such as an irreducible nonhyperbolic toral automorphism), than \(\alpha\) has no finite or infinite state Markov partitions, and there are no nontrivial continuous embeddings of Markov shifts in \(X\). In spite of this in the paper a symbolic space \(V\) and a class of shift-invariant probability measures on \(V\) each of which corresponds to an \(\alpha\)-invariant probability measure on \(X\) is constructed. It is shown, that every \(\alpha\)-invariant probability measure on \(X\) arises in this way. The connection between the two-sided beta-shift \(V_{\beta}\) arising from a Salem number \(\beta\) and the nonhyperbolic ergodic toral automorphism \(\alpha\) arising from the companion matrix of the minimal polynomial of \(\beta\), is invastigated. The connection between the two-sided beta-shifts defined by Pisot numbers and the corresponding hyperbolic ergodic toral automorphisms is studied.