Hereditarily minimal topological groups (Q2311856)

A Hausdorff topological group \((G,\tau)\) is called \textit{minimal} if there is no strictly coarser Hausdorff group topology on \(G\). Further, a Hausdorff group \((G,\tau)\) is called \textit{locally minimal} if there exists a neighborhood \(U\) of the identity element \(e\) such that there is no strictly coarser Hausdorff group topology on \(G\) such that \(U\) is still a neighborhood of \(e\). \(G\) is called \textit{hereditarily (locally) minimal} if every subgroup of \(G\) is (locally) minimal. According to a result of Prodanov, an infinite compact abelian group is hereditarily minimal iff it is topologically isomorphic to \({\mathbb Z}_p\) (\(p\)-adic integers) for some prime \(p\). This result is extended in various forms to non-compact and non-abelian groups. The main results of this article are: The semidirect product \({\mathbb Q}_p\rtimes {\mathbb Q}_p^*\) is a hereditarily locally minimal group. Those hereditarily locally minimal compact groups are characterized which are even hereditarily minimal. Further, if \(G\) is an infinite hereditarily minimal locally compact group and if \(G\) is either compact or locally solvable then \(G\) is topologically isomorphic to \({\mathbb Z}_p\) for some prime \(p\) or center-free. The infinite locally compact solvable hereditarily minimal groups are classified; in particular, each such group is compact and metabelian.