Residually finite actions and crossed products

Abstract

We study a notion of residual finiteness for continuous actions of discrete groups on compact Hausdorff spaces and how it relates to the existence of norm microstates for the reduced crossed product. Our main result asserts that an action of a free group on a zero-dimensional compact metrizable space is residually finite if and only if its reduced crossed product admits norm microstates, i.e., is an MF algebra.

final version, to appear in Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems