Definable Compactness and Definable Subgroups of o-Minimal Groups

The paper introduces the notion of definable compactness andwithin the context of o-minimal structures proves several topologicalproperties of definably compact spaces. In particular a definableset in an o-minimal structure is definably compact (with respectto the subspace topology) if and only if it is closed and bounded.Definable compactness is then applied to the study of groupsand rings in o-minimal structures. The main result proved isthat any infinite definable group in an o-minimal structurethat is not definably compact contains a definable torsion-freesubgroup of dimension 1. With this theorem, a complete characterizationis given of all rings without zero divisors that are definablein o-minimal structures. The paper concludes with several examplesillustrating some limitations on extending the theorem.