Graev metric groups and Polishable subgroups (Q2370621)

A~Borel subgroup of a~Polish group is Polishable if it admits a~Polish group topology generating the existing Borel structure. \textit{I. Farah} and \textit{S. Solecki} [``Borel subgroups of Polish groups'', Adv.\ Math.~199, No.~2, 499--541 (2006; Zbl 1100.03039)] asked whether every uncountable Polish group contains Polishable subgroups of arbitrarily high Borel rank. \textit{G. Hjorth} [``Subgroups of abelian Polish groups'', in: J.~Bagaria et al. (eds.), Set theory, Centre de Recerca Matemática Barcelona, 2003--2004, Basel: Birkhäuser. Trends in Mathematics, 297--308 (2006; Zbl 1111.03043)] answered this question in the positive for uncountable locally compact groups and for any Polish group with an uncountable abelian subgroup, and he conjectured that there is an uncountable Polish group all of whose abelian subgroups are discrete. In the paper under review the authors confirm Hjorth's conjecture and (following some of his suggestions) they prove that any abelian subgroup of the Graev metric group is cyclic and discrete. Besides this, there is a~closed subgroup of the infinite symmetric group \(S_\infty\) all of whose abelian subgroups are cyclic and discrete. The next main consideration in the paper is upon the question of Farah and Solecki for the Graev metric group. They prove that it contains Polishable subgroups of arbitrarily high Borel rank. To obtain this result they prove a~general theorem on extensions of Polish groups with this property. As another application they obtain a~generalization of Hjorth's result for uncountable solvable Polish groups.