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Does every locally compact second countable space have a non-trivial automorphism?

The motivation for this question comes from something I'm thinking about in logic.

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    Here are two possibly relevant papers: 1. J. de Groot, [Groups represented by homeomorphism groups I](http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01369667), and 2. Brian M. Scott, *[On the Existence of Totally Inhomogeneous Spaces](http://www.jstor.org/stable/2040346)*. In both papers the existence of an abundance of Hausdorff spaces with trivial automorphism groups is established, but I was unable to see at a glance whether these can be made locally compact (but there exist pretty geometric examples, i.e. subspaces of the plane, see e.g. the last example in paper 2).2011-06-11

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After a bit of looking around I found an even nicer answer: The answer is no, even for compact metric spaces.

More precisely, in H. Cook, Continua which admit only the identity mapping onto non-degenerate subcontinua, Fund. Math. 60 (1967), 241–249 there is the following Theorem 3 on page 248 (it should probably be Theorem 13, never seen such a typo...).

If $n$ is a positive integer, there exists a compact metric continuum $H_n$, with an atomic mapping onto a simple closed curve, such that there exist $n$, and only $n$, mappings of $H_n$ onto $H_n$, each of them is a homeomorphism, and there exists no mapping of $H_n$ onto a proper nondegenerate subcontinuum.

While I only understand roughly half of the words used here, I am sure that this means in particular: $\# \operatorname{Aut}(H_n) = n$. Put $n = 1$ and we have what we want (I'm cheating a bit because that case is the most difficult one, and is settled in in the "slightly technical" Theorem 6 already which I didn't want to reproduce here for that reason).


Added: The paper by the same H. Cook, Upper semi-continuous continuum-valued mappings onto circle like continua, Fund. Math. 60 (1967), 233–239 is also of relevance for understanding the theorem quoted here.

As explained by Henno Brandsma in his answer, J. de Groot's paper Groups represented by homeomorphism groups I, Math. Annalen 138 (1959), 80–102, and its predecessor J. de Groot and R. J. Wille, Rigid continua and topological group-pictures, Arch. Math. 9 (1958), 441–446 started these investigations.

Added Later: Here's a freely accessible link to Brian M. Scott's paper On the existence of totally inhomogeneous spaces, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 51 (1975), 489–493 mentioned in a comment and in Henno's answer.

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    Or maybe the typo is due to superstitio$n$ i$n$stead? :)2011-06-11
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Scott's paper, mentioned by Buehler, proves that a compact Hausdorff space $X$ is rigid (has no non-trivial auto-homeomorphism) iff for all $x \neq y$ we have that $X \setminus \{x\}$ is not homeomorphic to $X \setminus \{y\}$; however, it has an example of a rigid locally compact metric space $X$ containing points $x \neq y$ such that $X \setminus \{x\}$ is homeomorphic to $X \setminus \{y\}$.

J. de Groot constructed for every group $G$ a compact Hausdorff space $X$ such that the homeomorphism group of $X$ equals $G$. In fact, he mentions on the first page of that paper (viewable here) that he and Wille already in a previous paper constructed for a countable group $G$ a Peano curve such that its homeomorphism group equals $G$, so there is one for the trivial group as well. I think this settles the original question in the negative, as I think de Groot would call a space a Peano continuum only if it is metrisable.

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Actually I think most finite topological spaces (which are trivially both compact and second-countable) have no non-trivial automorphisms. Already the Sierpinski space $\mathbb{S} = \{ 0, 1 \}$ with topology $\{ \emptyset, \{ 1 \}, \{ 0, 1 \} \}$ is a counterexample.

For an infinite counterexample along the same lines take $\mathbb{N}$ with the topology $\{ \emptyset, \mathbb{N} - \{ 1 \}, \mathbb{N} - \{ 1, 2 \}, ... \}$. I think you want at least to assume that the space is Hausdorff. Note that any locally compact Hausdorff second-countable space is metrizable by Urysohn's metrization theorem, so we are in more familiar territory here.

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    @Pete: fair point. When I called it silly I was being a little tongue-in-cheek, which doesn't seem to have come across well. In any case, "should compact imply Hausdorff?" strikes me as a little subjective and argumentative. I can't imagine what would count as a reasonably objective answer.2011-08-06