The fundamental group as a topological group (Q1928429)

In this paper, a natural group topology on the fundamental group \(\pi_1(X,x_0)\) is obtained. The fundamental group as the quotient of the loop space \(\Omega (X,x_0)\) with the compact open topology is not always a topological group. Here free (Markov) topological groups are used to produce a topology such that the fundamental group is a topological group. The \textit{free (Markov) topological group} \(F_M(Y)\) on a space \(F\) is a topological group with a continuous map \(\sigma: Y\rightarrow F_M(Y)\) satisfying the universal property in topological groups. The natural function \(\Omega(X,x_0)\rightarrow \pi_1(X,x_0)\) defines a functor \({\pi_1}^{qtop}: hTop_*\rightarrow qTopGrp\) from the homotopy category of based spaces to the category of quasitopological groups. A \textit{group with topology} \(G\) is a group with a topology but not necessarily a topological group. Let \(GrpwTop\) be the category of groups with topology and continuous maps. Using free topological groups a functor \(\tau: GrpwTop\rightarrow TopGrp\) is obtained, where \(TopGrp\) is the category of topological groups. Since the category \(qTopGrp\) is a subcategory of \(GrpwTop\), the composition \(hTop_*\rightarrow TopGrp\) of the functors \({\pi_1}^{qtop}\) and \(\tau\) is well defined. This functor assigns to a based space \(X\) a topological group \({\pi_1}^{\tau}(X)\) whose underlying group is \({\pi_1}(X)\). This topological group is a quotient of the free topological group \(F_M({\pi_1}^{qtop}(X))\).