Constructing minimal homeomorphisms on point-like spaces and a dynamical presentation of the Jiang–Su algebra

Abstract

Abstract The principal aim of the present paper is to give a dynamical presentation of the Jiang–Su algebra. Originally constructed as an inductive limit of prime dimension drop algebras, the Jiang–Su algebra has gone from being a poorly understood oddity to having a prominent positive role in George Elliott’s classification programme for separable, nuclear C * {\mathrm{C}^{*}} -algebras. Here, we exhibit an étale equivalence relation whose groupoid C * {\mathrm{C}^{*}} -algebra is isomorphic to the Jiang–Su algebra. The main ingredient is the construction of minimal homeomorphisms on infinite, compact metric spaces, each having the same cohomology as a point. This construction is also of interest in dynamical systems. Any self-map of an infinite, compact space with the same cohomology as a point has Lefschetz number one. Thus, if such a space were also to satisfy some regularity hypothesis (which our examples do not), then the Lefschetz–Hopf Theorem would imply that it does not admit a minimal homeomorphism.