Continuous Combinatorics of Abelian Group Actions

This paper develops techniques which are used to answer a number of questions in the theory of equivalence relations generated by continuous actions of abelian groups. The methods center around the construction of certain specialized hyper-aperiodic elements, which produce compact, free subflows with useful properties. For example, we show that there is no continuous proper <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="3"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">3</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula>-coloring of the Schreier graph on <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper F left-parenthesis 2 Superscript double-struck upper Z squared Baseline right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>F</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">F(2^{\mathbb {Z}^2})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula>, the free part of the shift action of <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="double-struck upper Z squared"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathbb {Z}^2</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> on <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="2 Superscript double-struck upper Z squared"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">2^{\mathbb {Z}^2}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula>. With earlier work of Gao and Jackson (2015) this computes the continuous chromatic number of <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper F left-parenthesis 2 Superscript double-struck upper Z squared Baseline right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>F</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">F(2^{\mathbb {Z}^2})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> to be exactly <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="4"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">4</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula>. Combined with marker arguments for the positive directions, our methods allow us to analyze continuous homomorphisms into graphs, and more generally equivariant maps into subshifts of finite type. We present a general construction of a finite set of tiles for <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="2 Superscript double-struck upper Z Super Superscript n"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">2^{\mathbb {Z}^n}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> (there are <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="12"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mn>12</mml:mn> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">12</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> for <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="n equals 2"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">n=2</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula>) such that questions about the existence of continuous homomorphisms into various structures reduce to finitary combinatorial questions about the tiles. This tile analysis is used to deduce a number of results about <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper F left-parenthesis 2 Superscript double-struck upper Z Super Superscript n Superscript Baseline right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>F</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">F(2^{\mathbb {Z}^n})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula>.