Dynamical comparison for local homeomorphisms

Abstract

We prove dynamical comparison for Deaconu--Renault groupoids associated to minimal surjective non-injective local homeomorphisms of compact metrizable spaces with finite Lebesgue covering dimension. As a corollary, the associated $C^*$-algebras are UCT Kirchberg algebras, recovering results by Carlsen--Thomsen via dynamical methods. In the zero-dimensional case, our result also verifies Matui's AH-conjecture for these groupoids using a recent breakthrough of Xin Li. Our proof combines techniques from both the purely infinite and stably finite regimes: We construct partial actions of non-abelian free groups as suitable ``large subgroupoids'' and establish comparison properties for these using the paradoxical towers technique developed by Gardella--Geffen--Kranz--Naryshkin. The boundary of the subgroupoid is controlled by a groupoid version of the topological small boundary property which we deduce from finite covering dimension of the unit space. As a byproduct, we prove the classical small boundary property for minimal actions of countable discrete groups on finite-dimensional compact metrizable spaces without any freeness assumption.