Separating Homeomorphisms

Abstract

We show that on a totally disconnected compact metric space every separating homeomorphisms is expansive except at periodic points. We conclude that minimal separating homeomorphisms are expansive and that every separating homeomorphism has asymptotic points. We show that the only spaces admitting separating (or finite expansive) and recurrent homeomorphisms are finite sets. We apply our results to give a characterization of expansivity in terms of the expansivity of the cyclic group of powers of the homeomorphism.