The Borel complexity of conjugacy for Cantor minimal systems

Abstract

We prove that conjugacy of minimal homeomorphisms of the Cantor space is Borel bireducible with isomorphism of countable graphs, answering the Cantor minimal case of a question of Foreman. We obtain the lower bound by encoding countably based profinite groups. Finite quotient homomorphisms are represented by factor maps between a common family of minimal subshifts. Amalgamation makes the resulting inverse limit independent, up to conjugacy, of the quotient presentation. Conversely, finite-stage factorization recovers the group from any conjugacy of these inverse limits.

21 pages