The isometry group of the Urysohn space as a Lévy group

We prove that the isometry group Iso(U) of the universal Urysohn metric space U equipped with the natural Polish topology is a Lévy group in the sense of Gromov and Milman, that is, admits an approximating chain of compact (in fact, finite) subgroups, exhibiting the phenomenon of concentration of measure. This strengthens an earlier result by Vershik stating that Iso(U) has a dense locally finite subgroup.     

Group-valued continuous functions with the topology of pointwise convergence

Let G be a topological group with the identity element e. Given a space X, we denote by Cp(X,G) the group of all continuous functions from X to G endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence, and we say that X is: (a) G-regular if, for each closed set F⊆X and every point x∈X?F, there exist f∈Cp(X,G) and g∈G?{e} such that f(x)=g and f(F)⊆{e}; (b) G^?-regular provided that there exists g∈G?{e} such that, for each closed set F⊆X and every point x∈X?F, one can find f∈Cp(X,G) with f(x)=g and f(F)⊆{e}. Spaces X and Y are G-equivalent provided that the topological groups Cp(X,G) and Cp(Y,G) are topologically isomorphic.We investigate which topological properties are preserved by G-equivalence, with a special emphasis being placed on characterizing topological properties of X in terms of those of Cp(X,G). Since R-equivalence coincides with l-equivalence, this line of research “includes” major topics of the classical Cp-theory of Arhangel'ski? as a particular case (when G=R).We introduce a new class of TAP groups that contains all groups having no small subgroups (NSS groups). We prove that: (i) for a given NSS group G, a G-regular space X is pseudocompact if and only if Cp(X,G) is TAP, and (ii) for a metrizable NSS group G, a G^?-regular space X is compact if and only if Cp(X,G) is a TAP group of countable tightness. In particular, a Tychonoff space X is pseudocompact (compact) if and only if Cp(X,R) is a TAP group (of countable tightness). Demonstrating the limits of the result in (i), we give an example of a precompact TAP group G and a G-regular countably compact space X such that Cp(X,G) is not TAP.We show that Tychonoff spaces X and Y are T-equivalent if and only if their free precompact Abelian groups are topologically isomorphic, where T stays for the quotient group R/Z. As a corollary, we obtain that T-equivalence implies G-equivalence for every Abelian precompact group G. We establish that T-equivalence preserves the following topological properties: compactness, pseudocompactness, σ-compactness, the property of being a Lindelöf Σ-space, the property of being a compact metrizable space, the (finite) number of connected components, connectedness, total disconnectedness. An example of R-equivalent (that is, l-equivalent) spaces that are not T-equivalent is constructed.     

The oscillation stability problem for the Urysohn sphere: A combinatorial approach

We study the oscillation stability problem for the Urysohn sphere, an analog of the distortion problem for ?₂ in the context of the Urysohn space U. In particular, we show that this problem reduces to a purely combinatorial problem involving a family of countable ultrahomogeneous metric spaces with finitely many distances.     

Almost maximal spaces

A topological space X is called almost maximal if it is without isolated points and for every x∈X, there are only finitely many ultrafilters on X converging to x. We associate with every countable regular homogeneous almost maximal space X a finite semigroup Ult(X) so that if X and Y are homeomorphic, Ult(X) and Ult(Y) are isomorphic. Semigroups Ult(X) are projectives in the category F of finite semigroups. These are bands decomposing into a certain chain of rectangular components. Under MA, for each projective S in F, there is a countable almost maximal topological group G with Ult(G) isomorphic to S. The existence of a countable almost maximal topological group cannot be established in ZFC. However, there are in ZFC countable regular homogeneous almost maximal spaces X with Ult(X) being a chain of idempotents.     

Continuity in topological groups

We prove that, when G is a group equipped with a Baire and metrizable topology, if there is a second category dense subset S of G such that the right translations ρs and ρs⁻¹ are continuous for all s∈S and each left translation λs, s∈G, is almost-continuous (defined below) on a residual subset of G, then G is a topological group. Among other consequences, this yields that when G is a second countable locally compact right topological group, its topological centre is a topological group.     

HFD groups in the Solovay model

Hajnal and Juhász proved that under CH there is a hereditarily separable, hereditarily normal topological group without non-trivial convergent sequences that is countably compact and not Lindelöf. The example constructed is a topological subgroup H⊆ω₁² that is an HFD with the following property

(P)

the projection of H onto every partial product I² for I∈ω[ω₁] is onto.

Any such group has the necessary properties. We prove that if κ is a cardinal of uncountable cofinality, then in the model obtained by forcing over a model of CH with the measure algebra on κ², there is an HFD topological group in ω₁² which has property (P).     

Even continuity and topological equicontinuity in topologized semigroups

A topologized semigroup X having an evenly continuous resp., topologically equicontinuous, family RX of right translations is investigated. It is shown that: (1) every left semitopological semigroup X with an evenly continuous family RX is a topological semigroup, (2) a semitopological group X is a paratopological group if and only if the family RX is evenly continuous and (3) a semitopological group X is a topological group if and only if the family RX is topologically equicontinuous. In particular, we get that for any paratopological group X which is not a topological group, the family RX provides an example of a transitive group of homeomorphisms of X that is evenly continuous and not topologically equicontinuous. The last conclusion answers negatively a question posed by H.L. Royden.     

Fréchet-Urysohn fans in free topological groups

In this paper we answer the question of T. Banakh and M. Zarichnyi constructing a copy of the Fréchet-Urysohn fan S_ω in a topological group G admitting a functorial embedding [0,1]⊂G. The latter means that each autohomeomorphism of [0,1] extends to a continuous homomorphism of G. This implies that many natural free topological group constructions (e.g. the constructions of the Markov free topological group, free abelian topological group, free totally bounded group, free compact group) applied to a Tychonov space X containing a topological copy of the space Q of rationals give topological groups containing S_ω.     

Minimal pseudocompact group topologies on free abelian groups

A Hausdorff topological group G is minimal if every continuous isomorphism f:G→H between G and a Hausdorff topological group H is open. Significantly strengthening a 1981 result of Stoyanov, we prove the following theorem: For every infinite minimal abelian group G there exists a sequence of cardinals such that

     

Left and right uniform structures on functionally balanced groups

Let G be a Hausdorff topological group. It is shown that there is a class C of subspaces of G, containing all (but not only) precompact subsets of G, for which the following result holds:Suppose that for every real-valued discontinuous function on G there is a set A∈C such that the restriction mapping f|A has no continuous extension to G; then the following are equivalent:

(i)

the left and right uniform structures of G are equivalent,

(ii)

every left uniformly continuous bounded real-valued function on G is right uniformly continuous,

(iii)

for every countable set A⊂G and every neighborhood V of the unit e of G, there is a neighborhood U of e in G such that AU⊂VA.

As a consequence, it is proved that items (i), (ii) and (iii) are equivalent for every inframetrizable group. These results generalize earlier ones established by Itzkowitz, Rothman, Strassberg and Wu, by Milnes and by Pestov for locally compact groups, by Protasov for almost metrizable groups, and by Troallic for groups that are quasi-k-spaces.     

New basic result in classical descriptive set theory: Preservation of completeness

The aim of this note is to prove the following result:Assume that f is a continuous function from the space of irrationals ωω onto Y such that the image f(U) of every set U which is open and closed in ωω is the union of one open and one closed set. Then Y is a completely metrizable space.     

Bounded sets in topological groups and embeddings

We show that the existence of a non-metrizable compact subspace of a topological group G often implies that G contains an uncountable supersequence (a copy of the one-point compactification of an uncountable discrete space). The existence of uncountable supersequences in a topological group has a strong impact on bounded subsets of the group. For example, if a topological group G contains an uncountable supersequence and K is a closed bounded subset of G which does not contain uncountable supersequences, then any subset A of K is bounded in G?(K?A). We also show that every precompact Abelian topological group H can be embedded as a closed subgroup into a precompact Abelian topological group G such that H is bounded in G and all bounded subsets of the quotient group G/H are finite. This complements Ursul's result on closed embeddings of precompact groups to pseudocompact groups.     

A theorem of Hrushovski-Solecki-Vershik applied to uniform and coarse embeddings of the Urysohn metric space

A theorem proved by Hrushovski for graphs and extended by Solecki and Vershik (independently from each other) to metric spaces leads to a stronger version of ultrahomogeneity of the infinite random graph R, the universal Urysohn metric space U, and other related objects. We show how the result can be used to average out uniform and coarse embeddings of U (and its various counterparts) into normed spaces. Sometimes this leads to new embeddings of the same kind that are metric transforms and besides extend to affine representations of various isometry groups. As an application of this technique, we show that U admits neither a uniform nor a coarse embedding into a uniformly convex Banach space.     

Combinations not tolerated by normal topological groups

We show that if X is not paracompact then one can find a compact space K such that X⊕K does not embed closedly into any normal topological group.     

Rothberger bounded groups and Ramsey theory

We show that:

(1)

Rothberger bounded subgroups of σ-compact groups are characterized by Ramseyan partition relations (Corollary 4).

(2)

For each uncountable cardinal κ there is a T₀ topological group of cardinality κ such that ONE has a winning strategy in the point-open game on the group and the group is not a closed subspace of any σ-compact space (Theorem 8).

(3)

For each uncountable cardinal κ there is a T₀ topological group of cardinality κ such that ONE has a winning strategy in the point-open game on the group and the group is σ-compact (Corollary 17).

     

On the continuity of left translations in the LUC-compactification

Consider the continuity of left translations in the LUC-compactification GLUC of a locally compact group G. For every X⊆G, let κ(X) be the minimal cardinality of a compact covering of X in G. Let U(G) be the points in GLUC that are not in the closure of any X⊆G with κ(X)<κ(G). We show that the points at which no left translation in U(G) is continuous are dense in U(G). This result is a generalization of a theorem by van Douwen concerning discrete groups. We obtain a new proof for the fact that the topological center of GLUC?G is empty.     

Compact sets of continuity for Borel functions

We investigate connections between complexity of a function f from a Polish space X to a Polish space Y and complexity of the set , where K(X) denotes the space of all compact subsets of X equipped with the Vietoris topology. We prove that if C(f) is analytic, then f is Borel; and assuming -determinacy we show that f is Borel if and only if C(f) is coanalytic. Similar results for projective classes are also presented.     

Embedding paratopological groups into topological products

We show that a Hausdorff paratopological group G admits a topological embedding as a subgroup into a topological product of Hausdorff first-countable (second-countable) paratopological groups if and only if G is ω-balanced (totally ω-narrow) and the Hausdorff number of G is countable, i.e., for every neighbourhood U of the neutral element e of G there exists a countable family γ of neighbourhoods of e such that _?V∈γVV−1⊆U. Similarly, we prove that a regular paratopological group G can be topologically embedded as a subgroup into a topological product of regular first-countable (second-countable) paratopological groups if and only if G is ω-balanced (totally ω-narrow) and the index of regularity of G is countable.As a by-product, we show that a regular totally ω-narrow paratopological group with countable index of regularity is Tychonoff.