From invariant measures to orbit equivalence, via locally finite groups

Abstract: We give a new proof of a theorem of Giordano, Putnam and Skau characterizing orbit equivalence of minimal homeomorphisms of the Cantor space in terms of their sets of invariant Borel probability measures. The proof is based on a strengtehning of a theorem of Krieger concerning minimal actions of certain locally finite groups of homeomorphisms, and we also give a new proof of the Giordano--Putnam--Skau characterization of orbit equivalence for these actions.