Locally compact flows on connected manifolds

In this paper, we completely characterize locally compact flows G G of homeomorphisms of connected manifolds M M by proving that they are either circle groups or real groups. For M = R m M = \mathbb R^m , we prove that every recurrent element in G G is periodic, and we obtain a generalization of the result of Yang [Hilbert’s fifth problem and related problems on transformation groups, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 1976, pp. 142–146.] by proving that there is no nontrivial locally compact flow on R m \mathbb R^m in which all elements are recurrent.

Spatial models of Boolean actions and groups of isometries

Given a Polish group G of isometries of a locally compact separable metric space, we prove that each measure-preserving Boolean action by G has a spatial model or, in other words, has a point realization. This result extends both a classical theorem of Mackey and a recent theorem of Glasner and Weiss, and it covers interesting new examples. In order to prove our result, we give a characterization of Polish groups of isometries of locally compact separable metric spaces which may be of independent interest. The solution to Hilbert’s fifth problem plays an important role in establishing this characterization.