Topological groups with thin generating sets (Q1963981)

Let \(G\) be a topological group. A discrete subset \(S\) of \(G\) is called suitable if \(S\) generates a dense subgroup of \(G\) and \(S\cup\{1\}\) is closed in \(G\). Let \({\mathcal S}\) resp. \({\mathcal S}_c\) be the class of all topological groups having a suitable resp. a closed and discrete subset \(S\) which generates a dense subgroup of \(G\). If the subset \(S\) generates \(G\), the correspondent subclasses of \({\mathcal S}\) resp. \({\mathcal S}_c\) are denoted by \({\mathcal S}_q\) resp. \({\mathcal S}_{cg}\). It is a result of \textit{W. W. Comfort}, \textit{S. A. Morris}, \textit{D. Robbie}, \textit{S. Svetlichny} and \textit{M. Tkačenko} [Topology Appl. 86, 25-46 (1998; Zbl 0935.54029)] that (i) \({\mathcal S}_c\) contains all metrizable non-compact groups and (ii) \({\mathcal S}_{cg}\) contains all countable topological groups. These authors gave the first examples of topological groups \(G\) with \(G\notin{\mathcal S}\). It is a fundamental result of \textit{K. H. Hofmann} and \textit{S. A. Morris} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 68, 181-194 (1990; Zbl 0728.22006)] that the class \({\mathcal S}\) contains all locally compact groups. This and the result (i) of \textit{Comfort} et al. (loc. cit.) were generalized by \textit{O. Okunev} and the second author in the following way [In: Abelian groups, module theory and topology (Padua, 1997), Lect. Notes Pure Appl. Math. 201, 327-342 (New York 1988; Zbl 0914.54032)]: Every almost metrizable topological group has a suitable set. By using results of \textit{Comfort} et al. (loc. cit.) and their own [Topology Appl. 98, 131-148 (1999)] the authors prove the following result (Proposition 2.7): Let \(G\) be a \(\sigma\)-compact group. Then: (i) If \(G\in{\mathcal S}_c\), then \(G\) is separable. If \(G\) is separable and non-compact, then \(G\in{\mathcal S}_c\); (ii) \(G\in{\mathcal S}_{cg}\) if and only if \(G\) is countable. Let \({\mathcal F}\) be the class of all topologically finitely generated groups. Then for a countably compact group \(G\) the following holds (Proposition 2.2): (i) \(G\in{\mathcal S}\) if and only if \(G\in{\mathcal F}\) or \(G\) has an infinite discrete subset \(S\) such that \(S\cup\{1\}\) is compact; (ii) \(G\in {\mathcal S}_c\) if and only if \(G\in {\mathcal F}\); (iii) \(G\in {\mathcal S}_g\) if and only if \(G\) is finite. For a topological group \(G\) let \(b(G)\) be the minimal cardinal number such that \(G\) can be covered by less than \(b(C)\) translates of every neighbourhood of the identity in \(G\). \(d(G)\) denotes the density of \(G\). Then the authors show that a non-compact locally compact group \(G\) belongs to \({\mathcal S}_c\) if and only if \(d(G)< b(G)\) (Proposition 2.8). In Section 3 the problem of stability of the four classes defined above under the product resp. direct sum operations and taking subgroups or quotients is investigated. In Section 4 the existence of suitable sets in minimal resp. totally minimal topological groups is discussed. It is shown that the following classes belong to \({\mathcal S}\): (i) All totally minimal Abelian groups (Theorem 4.4); (ii) all totally minimal connected precompact groups (Theorem 4.5); (iii) all minimal countably compact connected Abelian groups (Theorem 4.8). The authors conjecture that ``Abelian'' can be eliminated from (iii). It remains open whether \({\mathcal S}\) contains all totally minimal groups (or at least all precompact totally minimal groups) (Problem 4.6). The existence of totally disconnected \(\omega\)-bounded (and hence countably compact) minimal Abelian groups \(G\notin {\mathcal S}\) is proved. In Section 5 suitable sets in the Bohr topology of a topological group \(G\) are investigated. (The Bohr topology of \(G\) is the topology of \(G\) induced by its Bohr compactification. \(G\) endowed with this topology is denoted by \(G^+\). If \(G\) is discrete, one writes \(G^*\) instead of \(G^+\).) The authors show the following interesting results: (i) \(G^*\in{\mathcal S}_{cg}\) for every Abelian group \(G\) (Theorem 5.7); (ii) \(G^+\in{\mathcal S}\) for every locally compact group \(G\). If \(G\) has a maximal compact subgroup which admits a closed suitable subset, then also \(G^+ \in {\mathcal S}_c\) (Theorem 5.8). The first part of (ii) was proved independently by Tomita and Trigos-Arrieta. The paper ends with the following questions: (i) Let \(G\) be a locally compact Abelian group. Does \(G\in{\mathcal S}_c\) imply \(G^+ \in {\mathcal S}\)? (ii) Does every topological group which satisfies Pontryagin duality belong to \({\mathcal S}\)? Recently the first author and \textit{F. J. Trigos-Arrieta} [J. Group Theory 3, 293-321 (2000)] have answered (i) positively and (ii) negatively.