Algebraic structure of pseudocompact groups

divisible groups free Abelian groups free groups non-torsion groups pseudocompactifiable groups pseudocompactness theory of varieties topological groups torsion groups torsion-free groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Ordinal and cardinal numbers (03E10) Consistency and independence results (03E35) Free nonabelian groups (20E05) Quasivarieties and varieties of groups (20E10) Residual properties and generalizations; residually finite groups (20E26) General structure theorems for groups (20E34) Periodic groups; locally finite groups (20F50) Torsion groups, primary groups and generalized primary groups (20K10) Torsion-free groups, infinite rank (20K20) Topological methods for abelian groups (20K45) Structure of general topological groups (22A05) Compact groups (22C05) Cardinality properties (cardinal functions and inequalities, discrete subsets) (54A25) Consistency and independence results in general topology (54A35) Embedding (54C25) Connected and locally connected spaces (general aspects) (54D05) Noncompact covering properties (paracompact, Lindelöf, etc.) (54D20) Compactness (54D30) Topological groups (topological aspects) (54H11)

Review text

Let \({\mathcal G}\) and \({\mathcal A}\) denote respectively the class of groups and the class of Abelian groups, and for cardinals \(\sigma\) and \(\tau\) let (reviewer's notation) \({\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma)\) be the class of all \(G\in {\mathcal G}\) such that \(| G| =\tau\) and \(G\) admits a pseudocompact group topology of weight \(\sigma\). Further set \({\mathcal P} (\tau)= \cup_\sigma {\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma)\) and \({\mathcal P} =\cup_\tau {\mathcal P} (\tau)\) and define \({\mathcal T} (\tau, \sigma) \), \({\mathcal T}, {\mathcal C} (\tau, \sigma)\) and \({\mathcal C}\) analogously, where \({\mathcal T}\) and \({\mathcal C}\) denote ``totally bounded and ``compact, respectively. (Thus always \({\mathcal C} (\tau, \sigma) \subseteq {\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma) \subseteq {\mathcal T} (\tau, \sigma)\).) When \({\mathcal C} (\tau, \sigma) \neq \emptyset\) one has \(\tau= 2^\sigma\), and the elements of the classes \({\mathcal A} \cap {\mathcal C} (\tau, \sigma)\), hence of \({\mathcal A} \cap {\mathcal C}\), are well understood and fully classified algebraically by work of I. Kaplansky, A. Hulanicki, J. Łoś, and D. K. Harrison. While algebraic structure is definitive in determining whether a given \(G\in {\mathcal A}\) satisfies \(G\in {\mathcal C}\), in contrast the algebraic structure of the groups in \({\mathcal A} \cap {\mathcal T}\) is absolutely immaterial: One has \({\mathcal A} \subseteq {\mathcal T}\), and every \(G\in {\mathcal A}\) with \(| G| =\tau\) satisfies \(G\in {\mathcal T} (\tau, \sigma)\) iff \(\log (\tau) \leq\sigma \leq 2^\tau\). In this comprehensive study the authors show that questions of membership in the intermediate classes \({\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma)\) and \({\mathcal P}\) are exquisitely sensitive to algebraic properties. (For example, with \(p\) prime and \({\mathcal P} (\tau)= \emptyset\) one has \(\oplus_\tau \mathbb{Z}(p) \times \oplus_{2^\tau} \mathbb{Z} (p^2) \in {\mathcal P} (2^\tau, \sigma)\) whenever \(2^\sigma \leq\tau \leq 2^{2^\sigma}\), while \(\oplus_\tau \mathbb{Z} (p^2) \times \oplus_{2^\tau} \mathbb{Z}(p) \notin {\mathcal P}.)\) Accordingly, the authors devote major portions of the present study to consideration of the following subclasses of \({\mathcal G}\): free groups; free Abelian groups; torsion-free groups; divisible groups; non-torsion groups; and torsion groups -- in each case finding necessary, or sufficient, or necessary and sufficient, conditions that a group \(G\) in the given subclass will satisfy \(G\in {\mathcal P}\). Here is a highly incomplete but representative list of the theorems proved in this paper. 7.6.: If \({\mathcal P} (\tau)\neq \emptyset\) then every \(G\in {\mathcal A}\) with \(| G| =r(G)= \tau\) is in \({ \mathcal P} (\tau)\). 3.22-3.23: If \(G\in {\mathcal A} \cap {\mathcal P} (| G|, \sigma)\) and the witnessing topology may be chosen connected, then \({\mathcal P} (r(G),\sigma) \neq\emptyset\) and \(| G| \leq 2^{2^{r(G)}}\) (hence \(r_p(G)\leq 2^{2^{r(G)}})\). 3.8: Every nontorsion \(G\in{\mathcal A} \cap {\mathcal P}\) satisfies \(r(G)\geq {\mathfrak c}\). A major contribution of this paper is the first (to the reviewer's knowledge) systematic application of the theory of varieties to the study of pseudocompactness in topological groups. Focussing naturally on the so-called pre-compact varieties \({\mathcal V}\) -- i.e., those generated by their finite elements -- the authors show for such \({\mathcal V}\) that if \({\mathcal P} (\tau,\sigma) \neq \emptyset\) then the \({\mathcal V}\)-free group \(F_\tau ({\mathcal V})\) of cardinality \(\tau\) is in \({\mathcal P}\). It then follows that the following conditions are equivalent: \({\mathcal P} (\tau,\sigma) \neq \emptyset\); \(F_\tau ({\mathcal G}) \in {\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma)\); \(F_\tau ({\mathcal A}) =\oplus_\tau \mathbb{Z}\in {\mathcal P} (\tau,\sigma)\); \(\oplus_\tau \mathbb{Q}\in {\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma)\); every finite \(F\in {\mathcal A}\) satisfies \(\oplus_\tau F\in {\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma)\). In many of these cases and elsewhere the authors show that if a group \(G\) satisfies \(G\in {\mathcal P} (\tau, \sigma)\) then the witnessing topology may be chosen connected and locally connected or, alternatively, zero-dimensional. The authors note from time to time that many of their results, including several of those cited above, have been discovered in whole or in part and published independently by W. W. Comfort, E. K. van Douwen (to whose memory this study is dedicated), M. G. Tkačenko, J. van Mill, D. Remus, L. C. Robertson, K. A. Ross, T. Soundararajan, and H. Wilcox. In any case the present work encompasses and subsumes, frequently with substantial improvements, essentially every known result to which its title properly applies. Any scholar hoping to complete the classification and characterization of pseudocompactifiable groups will be well guided to begin with a thorough reading of this useful monograph.

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