Decomposing isometric extensions using group extensions

This paper studies the structure of isometric extensions of compact metric topological dynamical systems with ℤ action and gives two decompositions of the general case to a more structured case. Suppose that Y → X is a M-isometric extension. An extension, Z, of Y is constructed which is also a G-isometric extension of X, where G is the group of isometries of M. The first construction shows that, provided that (X, T) is transitive, there are almost-automorphic extensions Y′ → Y and X′ → X, so that Y′ is homeomorphic to X′ × M and the natural projection Y′ → X′ is a group extension. The second shows that, provided that (X, T) is minimal, there is a G-action on Z which commutes with T and which preserves fibres and acts on each of them minimally. Each individual orbit closure, Za, in Z is a G′-isometric extension of X, where G′ is a subgroup of G, and there is a G′-action on Za which commutes with T, preserves fibres and acts minimally on each of them. Two illustrations are presented. Of the first: to reprove a result of Furstenberg; that every distal point is IP*-recurrent. Of the second: to describe the minimal subsets in isometric extensions of minimal topological dynamical systems.