Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2008
Associated to a rigid rank-1 transformation T is a semigroup ℒ(T) of natural numbers, closed under factors. If ℒ(S) ≠ ℒ(T) then S and T cannot be copied isomorphically onto the same space so that they commute. If ℒ(S) ⊅ ℒ(T) then S cannot be a factor of T. For each semigroup L we construct a weak mixing S such that ℒ(S) = L. The S where ℒ(S) = {l}, despite having uncountable commutant, has no roots.
Preceding and preparing for this example are two others: An uncountable abelian group G of weak mixing transformations for which any two (non-identity) members have identical self-joinings of all orders and powers. The second example, to contrast with the rank-1 property that the weak essential commutant must be the trivial group, is of a rank-2 transformation with uncountable weak essential commutant.