The nonexistence of extremally disconnected free topological groups (Q388013): Difference between revisions

An old question of Arkhangel'skii's asks whether a nondiscrete extremally disconnected topological group can be constructed in \(ZFC\). The author proves that, given a topological space \(X\), if there is an extremally disconnected group topology on the free Boolean group \(B(X)\) which satisfies an additional natural condition, then either \(X\) is a \(P\)-space or there exists a Ramsey ultrafilter on the natural numbers. As a consequence she obtains that the nonexistence of a nondiscrete extremally disconnected free Boolean topological group is consistent with \(ZFC\), thus negatively answering Arkhangel'skii's question for free Boolean groups. This holds in any model with no measurable cardinal (and, thus, no nondiscrete extremally connected \(P\)-space) and no Ramsey ultrafilter.