Local inverses of Borel homomorphisms and analytic p-ideals (Q2495000)

Let \(G\), \(H\) be topological groups and \(U\subseteq G\) a symmetric open neighborhood of 1. A function \(f : U \to H\) is called a local homomorphism if \(f(g_1g_2) = f(g_1)f(g_2)\) for any \(g_1\), \(g_2\in U\) with \(g_1g_2\in U\). In the paper under review, local homomorphisms appear in the more general context of Polish groups. A homomorphism \(\pi : H \to G\) between two topological groups is called locally invertible by a local homomorphism if there exist a symmetric neighborhood \(U\) of 1 in \(G\) and a local homomorphism \(f : U \to H\) such that \(\pi(f(g)) = g\) for all \(g\in U\). We say that \(\pi\) is invertible by a homomorphism if \(f\) in the preceding sentence can be chosen to be a global homomorphism, that is, when \(U = G\). The author presents a general result on inverting Borel homomorphisms with countable kernels from metric Borel groups into Polish groups. One can think of this result as somewhat analogous in the group context to the Lusin-Novikov theorem on finding Borel selectors for vertical sections of Borel subsets with countable such sections in products of Polish spaces. In fact, the Lusin-Novikov theorem is used in the proof in a crucial way. The result obtained yields a local homomorphic inverse and, in general, one cannot hope to obtain a global homomorphic inverse. The author investigates the question of when global inverses can be found. It is easily proved that this is so if \(G\) is a connected, simply connected Lie group. By setting \(G =\mathbb R\), the author recovers the Christensen-Kanovei-Reeken result for metric Borel groups. Groups with this property from the opposite end of the spectrum of Polish groups are found. The Polish groups produced here are nonlocally compact and totally disconnected. This construction generalizes examples due to Stevens and Hjorth, and is accomplished by associating in a canonical way a Polish group \(G(I)\) with certain analytic P-ideals \(I\) of subsets of \(\mathbb N\), the set of natural numbers including \(0\). Other aspects of the structure of the groups \(G(I)\), related to their disconnectedness, are of interest. The author points out that the groups \(G(I)\) are Polish totally disconnected groups with each neighborhood of 1 generating \(G(I)\) and that by varying \(I\) one can obtain both zero-dimensional and positive-dimensional examples. Moreover, the author gives a general sufficient condition on \(I\) for \(G(I)\) to be positive-dimensional: there exists an ideal \(J\) such that \(J\) is below \(I\) in the Rudin-Blass ordering and \(J\) is an \(F_\sigma\) P-ideal which is not a trivial modification of the ideal of finite subsets of \(\mathbb N\).