Topological Self-joinings of Cartan Actions by Toral Automorphisms

Abstract

We show that if $r\geq 3$ and $\alpha$ is a faithful $Z^r$-Cartan action on a torus $T^d$ by automorphisms, then any closed subset of $(T^d)^2$ which is invariant and topologically transitive under the diagonal $\bZ^r$-action by $\alpha$ is homogeneous, in the sense that it is either the full torus $(T^d)^2$, or a finite set of rational points, or a finite disjoint union of parallel translates of some d-dimensional invariant subtorus. A counterexample is constructed for the rank 2 case.