Questions tagged [topological-groups]
A topological group is a group $G$ together with a topology on the elements of $G$ such that the group operation and group inverse function are both continuous (with respect to the topology).
86 questions
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Why are free groups residually finite?
Why is it that every nontrivial word in a free group (it's easy to reduce to the case of, say, two generators) has a nontrivial image in some finite group? Equivalently, why is the natural map from a ...
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Fundamental groups of topological groups.
Let $G$ be a topological group, and $\pi_1(G,e)$ its fundamental group at the identity. If $G$ is the trivial group then $G \cong \pi_1(G,e)$ as abstract groups. My question is:
If $G$ is a non-...
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Fundamental group as topological group
Background
Let $(X,x)$ be a pointed topological space. Then the fundamental group $\pi_1(X,x)$ becomes a topological space: Endow the set of maps $S^1 \to X$ with the compact-open topology, endow the ...
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Which principlal bundles are locally trivial?
If $H$ is a closed subgroup of a topological group $G$, then the orbit map $G\to G/H$ is a principal bundle, yet somewhat surprisingly, it need not be locally trivial.
In the wikipedia article on ...
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Find a "natural" group that contains the quotient of the infinite symmetric group by the alternating subgroup
Let $S_\infty$ the group of permutations of $\mathbb{N}$. It can be shown that there is no homomorphism $S_\infty \to \mathbf{Z}/2$ extending the sign on the finite symmetric groups. Is it possible to ...
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Bohr compactification as a topological compactification
Let $G$ be a locally compact Hausdorff group. Denote its Bohr compactification by $bG$.
Despite group structure, $G$ has several (Hausdorff) compactifications that, in a sense, the smallest one is ...
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Why can't a nonabelian group be 75% abelian?
This question asks for intuition, not a proof.
An earlier question,
Measures of non-abelian-ness
was thoroughly answered by Arturo Magidin.
A paper by Gustafson1
proves that, for a nonabelian group,
...
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Closed connected additive subgroups of the Hilbert space
It is a classical result that a closed and connected additive subgroup of $\mathbb{R}^n$ is necessarily a linear subspace. However, this is no longer true in infinite dimension: a very easy example is ...
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Without choice, can every homomorphism from a profinite group to a finite group be continuous?
In ZFC, some homomorphisms from profinite groups to finite groups are discontinuous. For instance, see the examples in this question. However, all three constructions given use consequences of the ...
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Examples of locally compact groups that do not admit enough finite dimensional representations
I apologize in advance if this is well-known, but I can't seem to find the answer in the literature. Let me be precise about my question. I am looking for concrete examples of locally compact ...
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Countable subgroups of compact groups
What is known about countable subgroups of compact groups? More precisely, what countable groups can be embedded into compact groups (I mean just an injective homomorphism, I don't consider any ...
- 1,318
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Metric completion of an algebraically closed field is algebraically closed?
Let $F$ be a complete metric topological field. Suppose there is a subfield $F_1 \subset F$, algebraically closed and topoolgically dense in $F$. Must $F$ itself be algebraically closed?
We can ...
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Topological groups in which all subgroups are closed
General question: does there exist a nondiscrete topological group $G$ such that all subgroups of $G$ are closed? Or, does there exist a nondiscrete topological vector space $V$ such that all vector ...
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Does a compact Lie group have finitely many conjugacy classes of maximal Abelian Lie subgroups?
Let $G$ be a compact Lie group. An Abelian Lie subgroup $A \leq G$ is a maximal Abelian Lie subgroup if, for any Abelian Lie subgroup $A'$ such that $A \leq A' \leq G$, then $A' = A$.
Of course any ...
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Can each non-open analytic subgroup of a Polish abelian group be covered by countably many closed Haar null subsets?
By a result of Laczkovich ('Analytic subgroups of the reals' Proc AMS Vol 126 (1998)), any non-open analytic subgroup of a Polish locally compact group can be covered by countably many closed Haar ...
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Is each locally compact group topology on the permutation group discrete?
Question. Is each locally compact group topology on the permutation group $S_\omega$ discrete?
Here $S_\omega$ is the group of all bijections of the countable ordinal $\omega$. A group topology on a ...
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Subgroups of a topological Group such that quotient space is totally disconnected
If $G$ is a topological group and $G_{{e}}$ is the identity component, the it is well known that $G_{{e}}$ is a normal subgroup of $G$ and the quotient group $G/G_{{e}}$ is totally disconnected. What ...
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Is there a compact connected Hausdorff space in which every non-empty $G_\delta$ set has non-empty interior?
Q1.
Is there a compact connected Hausdorff space (with at least two points) in which every non-empty $G_\delta$ set has non-empty interior? (Without the requirement for connectedness, every finite $...
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Totally bounded group topologies on $\Bbb Q$ with trivial intersection of two neighborhoods
Are there totally bounded group topologies $\mathcal S$ and $\mathcal T$ on $\Bbb Q$ such that for some open sets $A\in\mathcal S$ and $B\in \mathcal T$ we have $A\cap B=\{0\}$?
- 1,145
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Surjective homomorphisms of non-connected Lie groups
Let $\psi\colon B\to C$
be a homomorphism of real Lie groups, where the group $C$ is connected.
Let $B^0$ denote the identity component of $B$, and we set $\pi_0(B)=B/B^0$, then $\pi_0(B)$ is a ...
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Complete topological groups in which all subgroups are closed
My previous question has been answered by YCor; so I am asking a new one with a reasonable additional assumption. See the previous question for the background and motivation.
General question: does ...
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vote
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locally closed orbits in metric Hausdorff topology
I learned the following fact from Bruhat and Tits's paper "Homomorphismes “abstraits” de groupes algebriques simples" Section 3.18 that
Let $k$ be a local field. Suppose that a $k$-group $H$ acts $k$...
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Compact open topology on $\mathrm{Homeo}(X)$
Let $X$ and $Y$ be topological spaces. Define the compact open topology on the set $\mathrm{M}(X,Y)$ of continuous maps from $X$ to $Y$ via the subbase $[K,O]$ of all maps $f:X\rightarrow Y$ s.t. $f(K)...
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morphism from a compact group to Z ?
I wonder if it there exists a topological compact group $G$ (by compact, I mean Hausdorff and quasi-compact) and a non-zero group morphism
$\phi : G \to \mathbb{Z}$ (without assuming any topological ...
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Compact open topology
What is the intuition behind using compact open topology for eg. in the case of Pontryagin dual ?
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Is every compact topological ring a profinite ring?
There are a lot of compact (Hausdorff) groups, whereas every compact field is finite. What about rings? Is there a classification theorem for compact rings? If you take a cofiltered limit of finite ...
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Ostrowski's Theorem for topological rings?
Ostrowski's theorem classifies all absolute values on a number field $K$.
Questions:
More generally, can one classify all Hausdorff topologies on $K$ making $K$ into a topological field?
In ...
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Haar measure on a quotient, References for
I remember reading Weil's "Basic Number Theory" and giving up after a while. Now I find myself thinking of it (thanks to some comments by Ben Linowitz).
Right from the very beginning, Weil ...
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A possible mistake in Walter Rudin, "Fourier analysis on groups"
I have the following lemma 4.2.4 on page 80 in the book (we have locally compact abelian topological groups $G_1, G_2$ and their duals $\Gamma_1, \Gamma_2$):
Suppose $E$ is a coset in $\Gamma_2$ ...
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rationalization of classifying spaces
This question is probably trivial for anyone who is more familiar with rational homotopy theory than me, but anyway:
Let $G$ be a simply-connected topological group. In particular, it is an $H$-...
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Are measurable homomorphisms $ (\Bbb{C},+) \to (\Bbb{C},+) $ or $ (\Bbb{C},+) \to (\Bbb{C},*) $ continuous, and do they admit an explicit description?
I am interested in generalizations of the following fact (known as automatic continuity, as pointed out below). I am especially looking for references to papers dating back to 1920’s. I feel that ...
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How flexible is the infinite-dimensional torus?
Let $\mathbb T=\mathbb R/\mathbb Z$ be the circle group and $\mathbb T^\omega$ be the infinite-dimensional torus, considered as an abelian compact topological group.
Problem 1. Is it true that for ...
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Baire Category Theorem for complete uniform spaces
The version of the Baire Category Theorem I have in mind is the statement that a countable intersection of dense open subsets of a complete metric space is dense. The question is: is it likewise ...
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A generalization of residual finiteness to topological groups
Consider the following generalization of residual finiteness to
topological groups.
A locally compact Hausdorff group $G$ is called residually compact if
for every compact $K \subseteq G$ there is a ...
12
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Does almost every pair of elements in a compact Lie group generates the connected component?
It is known that almost every pair of elements in a connected compact Lie group (topologically) generates the group.
Obviously this isn't true for non-connected groups but
Given a compact Lie ...
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Does each compact topological group admit a discontinuous homomorphism to a Polish group?
A compact topological group $G$ is called Van der Waerden if each homomorphism $h:G\to K$ to a compact topological group is continuous. By a classical result of Van der Waerden (1933) the groups $SO(...
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Is $k(\!(x,y)\!)$ a topological field?
More generally, let $(R,m)$ be a Noetherian local domain with fraction field $K$. The $m$-adic topology turns $R$ into a topological ring. When $R$ is a discrete valuation ring, this topology extends ...
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What is known about topological groups of countable spread in ZFC?
A topological space has countable spread if every discrete subspace is at most countable.
By Theorem 8.10 in Todorcevic's book "Partition Problems in Topology", PFA implies that each regular space $X$...
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Potential connected non-Lie subgroup
This painful question is inspired by the question
"non-Lie subgroups" . Let $f$ be a discontinuous additive map from $\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$. Is it possible that the graph of $f$, inside ...
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Existence of infinite groups that are too reluctant to be topological
With ZFC, is there an infinite group $G$ such that there is no non-trivial non-discrete topology on $G$ with the functions $G\times G\to G,~~ (a,b) \mapsto ab$ and $G\to G,~~ a\mapsto a^{-1}$ ...
- 1,145
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Meager subgroups of compact groups
Suppose we have an infinite compact (Hausdorff) group $G$, and a subgroup $H\leq G$ which is meagre.
Can $H$ always be covered by a countable family of nowhere dense sets $H_n$ such that $H_n^2$ is ...
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Does each discrete solvable group admit an injective homomorphism to a compact topological group?
It is well-known that each abelian group admits an injective homomorphism to some compact topological group (for example to its Bohr compactification). Is the same fact true for solvable groups?
...
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Is every contractible homogeneous space of a connected Lie group homeomorphic to a Euclidean space?
Problem. Let $G$ be a connected Lie group and $H$ is a closed subgroup of $G$ such that the homogeneous space $G/H$ is contractible. Is $G/H$ homeomorphic to a Euclidean space $\mathbb R^n$ for some $...
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Avoiding countable subgroups of general uncountable groups
The following problem is a general form of another problem (motivation is available there). Initially, the problems were posted together, but the first one is solved below, a solution that does not ...
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Measures on general topological groups
I am interested in the group algebras of non-locally compact groups. What references can you advise?
This is a wide question, so I list more concretely what I would like to see:
Here X can be even ...
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2
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Homomorphisms from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathrm{Homeo}^+(\mathbb{R})$, or "fractional iterations"
Let $G$ be the group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms (or, if you prefer, diffeomorphisms) of the real line. Does there exist a natural way to associate, to each function $f \in G$, a ...
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Must a locally compact group be Hausdorff in order to possess a Haar measure?
Does the existence of (left) Haar measure on a locally compact topological group require that the group be Hausdorff?
- 2,814
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The group of diffeomorphisms with compact support
Let $M$ be a topological/differentiable manifold. Is there any topology on the group of homeomorphisms/diffeomorphisms with compact support, turning it into a (locally-)compact topological group?
(My ...
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Hausdorff group topologies on finitely generated groups
Suppose $G$ is a finitely generated Hausdorff topological group. Must $G$ be first countable (or perhaps a sequential space)? What if we restrict to the abelian case?
I wonder if this is even true ...
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Discrete spectrum and almost periodicity
According to Vershik, an ergodic invertible measure-preserving transformation $T$ on a Lebesgue space $X$ has discrete spectrum if and only if for every bounded measurable function $f\colon X \to \...
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