The paper studies the $K$-theoretic invariants of the crossed product $C^{*}$-algebras associated with an important family of homeomorphisms of the tori $\mathbb{T}^{n}$ called Furstenberg transformations. Using the Pimsner-Voiculescu theorem, we prove that given $n$, the $K$-groups of those crossed products, whose corresponding $n\times n$ integer matrices are unipotent of maximal degree, always have the same rank $a_{n}$. We show using the theory developed here that a claim made in the literature about the torsion subgroups of these $K$-groups is false. Using the representation theory of the simple Lie algebra $\frak{sl}(2,\mathbb{C})$, we show that, remarkably, $a_{n}$ has a combinatorial significance. For example, every $a_{2n+1}$ is just the number of ways that $0$ can be represented as a sum of integers between $-n$ and $n$ (with no repetitions). By adapting an argument of van Lint (in which he answered a question of Erd\H{o}s), a simple, explicit formula for the asymptotic behavior of the sequence $\{a_{n}\}$ is given. Finally, we describe the order structure of the $K_{0}$-groups of an important class of Furstenberg crossed products, obtaining their complete Elliott invariant using classification results of H. Lin and N. C. Phillips.

We present a structure theorem for a broad class of homeomorphisms of finite order on countable zero dimensional spaces. As applications we show the following. \begin{compactenum}[\rm(a)] \item Every countable nondiscrete topological group not containing an open Boolean subgroup can be partitioned into infinitely many dense subsets. \item If $G$ is a countably infinite Abelian group with finitely many elements of order $2$ and $\beta G$ is the Stone--\v Cech compactification of $G$ as a discrete semigroup, then for every idempotent $p\in\beta G\setminus\{0\}$, the subset $\{p,-p\}\subset\beta G$ generates algebraically the free product of one-element semigroups $\{p\}$ and~$\{-p\}$. \end{compactenum}

In this paper we primarily consider two natural subgroups of the autohomeomorphism group of the real line $\R$, endowed with the compact-open topology. First, we prove that the subgroup of homeomorphisms that map the set of rational numbers $\Q$ onto itself is homeomorphic to the infinite power of $\Q$ with the product topology. Secondly, the group consisting of homeomorphisms that map the pseudoboundary onto itself is shown to be homeomorphic to the hyperspace of nonempty compact subsets of $\Q$ with the Vietoris topology. We obtain similar results for the Cantor set but we also prove that these results do not extend to $\R^n$ for $n\ge 2$, by linking the groups in question with Erd\H os space.