Schwartz groups and convergence of characters

It is proved that a locally quasi-convex group is a Schwartz group if and only if every continuously convergent filter on its dual group converges locally uniformly. We also show that for metrizable separable groups a similar result remains true when filters are replaced by sequences. As an ingredient in the proofs of these results, we obtain a Schauder-type theorem on compact homomorphisms acting between the natural group analogues of normed spaces.     

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.     

On subgroups of minimal topological groups

A topological group is minimal if it does not admit a strictly coarser Hausdorff group topology. The Roelcke uniformity (or lower uniformity) on a topological group is the greatest lower bound of the left and right uniformities. A group is Roelcke-precompact if it is precompact with respect to the Roelcke uniformity. Many naturally arising non-Abelian topological groups are Roelcke-precompact and hence have a natural compactification. We use such compactifications to prove that some groups of isometries are minimal. In particular, if U₁ is the Urysohn universal metric space of diameter 1, the group Iso(U₁) of all self-isometries of U₁ is Roelcke-precompact, topologically simple and minimal. We also show that every topological group is a subgroup of a minimal topologically simple Roelcke-precompact group of the form Iso(M), where M is an appropriate non-separable version of the Urysohn space.     

Metrizability of paratopological (semitopological) groups

We investigate some generalized metric space properties on paratopological (semitopological) groups and prove that a paratopological group that is quasi-metrizable by a left continuous, left-invariant quasi-metric is a topological group and give a negative answer to Ravsky?s question (Ravsky, 2001 [18, Question 3.1]). It is also shown that an uncountable paratopological group that is a closed image of a separable, locally compact metric space is a topological group. Finally, we discuss Hausdorff compactification of paratopological (semitopological) groups, give an affirmative answer to Lin and Shen?s question (Lin and Shen, 2011 [14, Question 6.9]) and improve an Arhangel?skii and Choban?s theorem. Some questions are posed.     

Precompact abelian groups and topological annihilators

For a compact Hausdorff abelian group K and its subgroup H≤K, one defines the g-closureg_K(H) of H in K as the subgroup consisting of χ∈K such that χ(a_n)?0 in T=R/Z for every sequence {a_n} in (the Pontryagin dual of K) that converges to 0 in the topology that H induces on . We prove that every countable subgroup of a compact Hausdorff group is g-closed, and thus give a positive answer to two problems of Dikranjan, Milan and Tonolo. We also show that every g-closed subgroup of a compact Hausdorff group is realcompact. The techniques developed in the paper are used to construct a close relative of the closure operator g that coincides with the G_δ-closure on compact Hausdorff abelian groups, and thus captures realcompactness and pseudocompactness of subgroups.     

Notes on paratopological groups

In this paper, we prove that if a remainder of a non-locally compact paratopological group G   has a _Gδ$G_{\delta }$-diagonal and every compact subset of G is first countable, then G   has a _Gδ$G_{\delta }$-diagonal of infinite rank. This improves a result of Chuan Liu and Shou Lin [Chuan Liu, Shou Lin, Generalized metric spaces with algebraic structure, Topology Appl. 157 (2010) 1966–1974]. We also construct an open continuous homomorphism f from a non-metrizable paratopological group G onto a metrizable topological group H such that the kernel of f is metrizable. This result gives a negative answer to an open problem posed in [A.V. Arhangel?skii, M. Tkachenko, Topological Groups and Related Structures, Atlantis Press, World Scientific, 2008].     

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.     

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.     

Automatic continuity of biseparating homomorphisms defined between groups of continuous functions

Let C(X,T) be the group of continuous functions of a compact Hausdorff space X to the unit circle of the complex plane T with the pointwise multiplication as the composition law. We investigate how the structure of C(X,T) determines the topology of X. In particular, which group isomorphisms H between the groups C(X,T) and C(Y,T) imply the existence of a continuous map h of Y into X such that H is canonically represented by h. Among other results, it is proved that C(X,T) determines X module a biseparating group isomorphism and, when X is first countable, the automatic continuity and representation as Banach-Stone maps for biseparating group isomorphisms is also obtained.     

Locally compact abelian groups admitting non-trivial quasi-convex null sequences

In this paper, we show that, for every locally compact abelian group G, the following statements are equivalent:

(i)

G contains no sequence such that {0}∪{±x_n∣n∈N} is infinite and quasi-convex in G, and x_n?0;

(ii)

one of the subgroups {g∈G∣2g=0} or {g∈G∣3g=0} is open in G;

(iii)

G contains an open compact subgroup of the form or for some cardinal κ.

     

Unconditionally τ-closed and τ-algebraic sets in groups

Families of unconditionally τ-closed and τ-algebraic sets in a group are defined, which are natural generalizations of unconditionally closed and algebraic sets defined by Markov. A sufficient condition for the coincidence of these families is found. In particular, it is proved that these families coincide in any group of cardinality at most τ. This result generalizes both Markov's theorem on the coincidence of unconditionally closed and algebraic sets in a countable group (as is known, they may be different in an uncountable group) and Podewski's theorem on the topologizability of any ungebunden group.     

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.     

CLP-compactness for topological spaces and groups

We study CLP-compact spaces (every cover consisting of clopen sets has a finite subcover) and CLP-compact topological groups. In particular, we extend a theorem on CLP-compactness of products from [J. Steprāns, A. Šostak, Restricted compactness properties and their preservation under products, Topology Appl. 101 (3) (2000) 213-229] and we offer various criteria for CLP-compactness for spaces and topological groups, that work particularly well for precompact groups. This allows us to show that arbitrary products of CLP-compact pseudocompact groups are CLP-compact. For every natural n we construct:

(i)

a totally disconnected, n-dimensional, pseudocompact CLP-compact group; and

(ii)

a hereditarily disconnected, n-dimensional, totally minimal, CLP-compact group that can be chosen to be either separable metrizable or pseudocompact (a Hausdorff group G is totally minimal when all continuous surjective homomorphisms G→H, with a Hausdorff group H, are open).

     

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).

     

Bornologies and metrically generated theories

Bornologies axiomatize an abstract notion of bounded sets and are introduced as collections of subsets satisfying a number of consistency properties. Bornological spaces form a topological construct, the morphisms of which are those functions which preserve bounded sets. A typical example is a bornology generated by a metric, i.e. the collection of all bounded sets for that metric. In a recent paper [E. Colebunders, R. Lowen, Metrically generated theories, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 133 (2005) 1547-1556] the authors noted that many examples are known of natural functors describing the transition from categories of metric spaces to the “metrizable” objects in some given topological construct such that, in some natural way, the metrizable objects generate the whole construct. These constructs can be axiomatically described and are called metrically generated. The construct of bornological spaces is not metrically generated, but an important large subconstruct is. We also encounter other important examples of metrically generated constructs, the constructs of Lipschitz spaces, of uniform spaces and of completely regular spaces. In this paper, the unified setting of metrically generated theories is used to study the functorial relationship between these constructs and the one of bornological spaces.     

Characterizing subgroups of compact abelian groups

We prove that every countable subgroup of a compact metrizable abelian group has a characterizing set. As an application, we answer several questions on maximally almost periodic (MAP) groups and give a characterization of the class of (necessarily MAP) abelian topological groups whose Bohr topology has countable pseudocharacter.