Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-kwt9d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T08:32:16.949Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The projective fundamental group of a ℤ2-shift

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2010

William Geller
Affiliation:
Institute of Mathematics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
James Propp
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA (propp@math.mit.edu.)

Abstract

We define a new invariant for symbolic ℤ2-actions, the projective fundamental group. This invariant is the limit of an inverse system of groups, each of which is the fundamental group of a space associated with the ℤ2-action. The limit group measures a kind of long-distance order that is manifested along loops in the plane, and roughly speaking bears the same relation to the mixing properties of the ℤ2-action that π1; of a topological space bears to π0. The projective fundamental group is invariant under topological conjugacy. We calculate this invariant for several important examples of ℤ2-actions, and use it to prove non-existence of certain constant-to-one factor maps between two-dimensional subshifts. Subshifts that have the same entropy and periodic point data can have different projective fundamental groups.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable