Closure index of semitopological groups (Q2165560)

All spaces in this article satisfy the separation axiom \(T_1\). Let \(G\) be a group with a topology. The group \(G\) is called a semitopological group if multiplication in \(G\) is separately continuous and a paratopological group if multiplication is jointly continuous. A semitopological group with continuous inverse is called a quasitopological group and a paratopological group with continuous inverse is a topological group. The interaction between the algebraic and topological structures of the objects in Topological Algebra permits to find clear relations between cardinal functions in some classes of (semi)topological groups. The authors define a new cardinal function. Let \(G\) be a semitopological group. The family of open neighborhoods of the neutral element \(e\) in \(G\) will be denoted by \(\mathcal{N}(e)\). The \textit{left closure index} \(lci(A, G)\) of a subset \(A\subseteq G\) is the least infinite cardinal \(t\) such that there exists a subfamily \(\mathcal{V}\subseteq\mathcal{N} (e)\) with \(|\mathcal{V}|\leq t\) satisfying \(\overline{A} =\bigcap\limits_{ V\in\mathcal{V} }V^{-1}A\) (similarly, the \textit{right closure index} \(rci(A, G)\)). The \textit{closure index} of \(A\) in \(G\) is the product cardinal number \( ci(A, G)=lci(A, G)\cdot rci(A, G)\). The closure index \(ci(G)\) lies between the character \(\chi(G)\) and pseudocharacter \(\psi(G)\). For locally compact topological groups, these three cardinal functions coincide, but examples of topological groups \(G\) satisfying \(\chi(G) < ci(G) < \psi(G)\) are also shown. The authors establish several properties of the closure index, like for example that \(ci(H)\leq ci(G)\), where \(H\) is a subgroup of \(G\), \(ci(A,G)=ci(\overline{A},G)\), if \(G\) is paratopological, the closure index of a paratopological group \(G\) is not greater than its network weight, etc. They also calculate the closure index of some topological groups with compactness-like properties showing several examples where the three cardinal functions are pairwise distinct. Some results are extended to the class of feathered topological groups. A topological group \(G\) is \textit{feathered} if it contains a compact subgroup \(H\) such that the quotient space \(G/H\) is metrizable. Then \(\chi(G)=ci(G)\). Finally, the problem of finding conditions on a (para)topological group guaranteeing the group has countable closure index is investigated. It turns out that this is true for \(\sigma\)-bounded topological groups with countable pseudocharacter as well as for regular Lindelöf \(\Sigma\) paratopological groups with countable pseudocharacter. Throughout the work several examples are raised to clarify the correlation with other cardinal functions, questions and problems.