On the outer automorphism groups of triangular alternation limit algebras

Let $A$ denote the alternation limit algebra, studied by Hopenwasser and Power, and by Poon, which is the closed direct limit of upper triangular matrix algebras determined by refinement embeddings of multiplicity $r_k$ and standard embeddings of multiplicity $s_k$. It is shown that the quotient of the isometric automorphism group by the approximately inner automorphisms is the abelian group $\ZZ ^d$ where $d$ is the number of primes that are divisors of infinitely many terms of each of the sequences $(r_k)$ and $(s_k)$. This group is also the group of automorphisms of the fundamental relation of $A$.