Description:
For any locally compact abelian periodic group A its automorphism group contains as a subgroup those automorphisms that leave invariant every closed subgroup of A, to be denoted by SAut(A). This subgroup is again a locally compact abelian periodic group in its natural topology and hence allows a decomposition into its p-primary subgroups for p the primes for which topological p-elements in this automorphism subgroup exist. The interplay between the p-primary decomposition of SAut(A) and A can be encoded in a bipartite graph, the mastergraph of A. Properties and applications of this concept are discussed.