Universal minimal flows of homeomorphism groups of high-dimensional manifolds are not metrizable

Abstract

Answering a question of Uspenskij, we prove that if $X$ is a closed manifold of dimension $2$ or higher or the Hilbert cube, then the universal minimal flow of $\mathrm{Homeo}(X)$ is not metrizable. In dimension $3$ or higher, we also show that the minimal $\mathrm{Homeo}(X)$-flow consisting of all maximal, connected chains in $X$ has meager orbits.