axioms Article Computing the Scale of an Endomorphism of a totally Disconnected Locally Compact Group George A. Willis School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia;
[email protected]; Tel.: +61-2-4921-5666; Fax: +61-2-4921-6898 Received: 28 August 2017; Accepted: 9 October 2017; Published: 20 October 2017 Abstract: The scale of an endomorphism of a totally disconnected, locally compact group G is defined and an example is presented which shows that the scale function is not always continuous with respect to the Braconnier topology on the automorphism group of G. Methods for computing the scale, which is a positive integer, are surveyed and illustrated by applying them in diverse cases, including when G is compact; an automorphism group of a tree; Neretin’s group of almost automorphisms of a tree; and a p-adic Lie group. The information required to compute the scale is reviewed from the perspective of the, as yet incomplete, general theory of totally disconnected, locally compact groups. Keywords: locally compact group; endomorphism; scale; tree; Neretin’s group; Thompson’s group; p-adic Lie group 1. Introduction Let G be a totally disconnected, locally compact (t.d.l.c.) group. A fundamental theorem about t.d.l.c. groups, proved by van Dantzig in the 1930s, see [1] and ([2] Theorem II.7.7), asserts that G has a base of neighbourhoods of the identity consisting of compact open subgroups. These subgroups are important for the definition of the scale of endomorphisms a : G ! G, which is a positive integer gauging the action of a.