Free Group Actions from the Viewpoint of Dynamical Systems

In this paper we present a new characterization of free group actions (in classical differential geometry), involving dynamical systems and representations of the corresponding transformation groups. In fact, given a dynamical system, we provide conditions including the existence of "sufficiently many" representations of the transformation group which ensure that the corresponding action of that group on the spectrum of the algebra is free. In particular, the case of compact abelian groups is discussed very carefully. We further present an application to the structure theory of C*-algebras and an application to the noncommutative geometry of principal bundles.