The generic transformation has roots of all orders
Volume 84 / 2000
Abstract
In the sense of the Baire Category Theorem we show that the generic transformation T has roots of all orders (RAO theorem). The argument appears novel in that it proceeds by establishing that the set of such T is not meager - and then appeals to a Zero-One Law (Lemma 2). On the group Ω of (invertible measure-preserving) transformations, §D shows that the squaring map p: S → S^{2} is topologically complex in that both the locally-dense and locally-lacunary points of p are dense (Theorem 23). The last section, §E, discusses the relation between RAO and a recent example of Blair Madore. Answering a question of the author's, Madore constructs a transformation with a square-root chain of each finite length, yet possessing no infinite square-root chain.
