Glider automata on all transitive sofic shifts

For any infinite transitive sofic shift X we construct a reversible cellular automaton (that is, an automorphism of the shift X) which breaks any given finite point of the subshift into a finite collection of gliders traveling into opposing directions. This shows in addition that every infinite transitive sofic shift has a reversible cellular automaton which is sensitive with respect to all directions. As another application we prove a finitary version of Ryan’s theorem: the automorphism group $\operatorname {\mathrm {Aut}}(X)$ contains a two-element subset whose centralizer consists only of shift maps. We also show that in the class of S-gap shifts these results do not extend beyond the sofic case.

Normal amenable subgroups of the automorphism group of sofic shifts

Let $(X,\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E})$ be a transitive sofic shift and let $\operatorname{Aut}(X)$ denote its automorphism group. We generalize a result of Frisch, Schlank, and Tamuz to show that any normal amenable subgroup of $\operatorname{Aut}(X)$ must be contained in the subgroup generated by the shift. We also show that the result does not extend to higher dimensions by giving an example of a two-dimensional mixing shift of finite type due to Hochman whose automorphism group is amenable and not generated by the shift maps.

Countable Sofic Shifts with a Periodic Direction

As a variant of the equal entropy cover problem, we ask whether all multidimensional sofic shifts with countably many configurations have SFT covers with countably many configurations. We answer this question in the negative by presenting explicit counterexamples. We formulate necessary conditions for a vertically periodic shift space to have a countable SFT cover, and prove that they are sufficient in a natural (but quite restricted) subclass of shift spaces.

Hidden Gibbs measures on shift spaces over countable alphabets

We study the thermodynamic formalism for particular types of sub-additive sequences on a class of subshifts over countable alphabets. The subshifts we consider include factors of irreducible countable Markov shifts under certain conditions, which we call irreducible countable sofic shifts. We show the variational principle for topological pressure for some sub-additive sequences with tempered variation on irreducible countable sofic shifts. We also study conditions for the existence and uniqueness of invariant ergodic Gibbs measures and the uniqueness of equilibrium states. Applications are given to some dimension problems and study of factors of (generalized) Gibbs measures on certain subshifts over countable alphabets.

Flow equivalence of sofic beta-shifts

The Fischer, Krieger, and fiber product covers of sofic beta-shifts are constructed and used to show that every strictly sofic beta-shift is 2-sofic. Flow invariants based on the covers are computed, and shown to depend only on a single integer that can easily be determined from the $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$-expansion of 1. It is shown that any beta-shift is flow equivalent to a beta-shift given by some $1<\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}<2$, and concrete constructions lead to further reductions of the flow classification problem. For each sofic beta-shift, there is an action of $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ on the edge shift given by the fiber product, and it is shown precisely when there exists a flow equivalence respecting these $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$-actions. This opens a connection to ongoing efforts to classify general irreducible 2-sofic shifts via flow equivalences of reducible shifts of finite type (SFTs) equipped with $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$-actions.