Topological entropy in totally disconnected locally compact groups

Abstract

Let $G$ be a topological group, let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ be a continuous endomorphism of $G$ and let $H$ be a closed $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$-invariant subgroup of $G$. We study whether the topological entropy is an additive invariant, that is, $$\begin{eqnarray}h_{\text{top}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D719})=h_{\text{top}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}\restriction _{H})+h_{\text{top}}(\bar{\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}}),\end{eqnarray}$$ where $\bar{\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}}:G/H\rightarrow G/H$ is the map induced by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$. We concentrate on the case when $G$ is totally disconnected locally compact and $H$ is either compact or normal. Under these hypotheses, we show that the above additivity property holds true whenever $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}H=H$ and $\ker (\unicode[STIX]{x1D719})\leq H$. As an application, we give a dynamical interpretation of the scale $s(\unicode[STIX]{x1D719})$ by showing that $\log s(\unicode[STIX]{x1D719})$ is the topological entropy of a suitable map induced by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$. Finally, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the equality $\log s(\unicode[STIX]{x1D719})=h_{\text{top}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D719})$ to hold.