A duality property of an uncountable product of \({\mathbb{Z}}\) (Q2642267)

A character of a topological Abelian group is a continuous homomorphism in the topological group \(\mathbb T\) of complex numbers of modulus 1. A topological Abelian group \(G\) is called Pontryagin reflexive provided the canonical homomorphism of \(G\) in its bidual group \(G^{\ast\ast}\) is a topological isomorphism. A topological Abelian group \(A\) is called strongly reflexive provided every closed subgroup and every Hausdorff quotient group of \(A\) and its character group \(A^\ast\) are reflexive [\textit{R. Brown, P. J. Higgins} and \textit{S. A. Morris}, Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 78, 19--32 (1975; Zbl 0304.22001)] and \textit{W. Banaszczyk} [Additive subgroups of topological vector spaces. Lect. Notes Math. 1466, Berlin etc. (1991; Zbl 0743.46002), \S 17]. Answering a question raised by W. Banaszczyk, the author shows that the group \(\mathbb Z^{\mathbb R}\) endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence is not strongly reflexive. Namely, a Hausdorff quotient of \(\mathbb Z^{\mathbb R}\) is constructed which is not reflexive. The proof is based on the properties of the arc-component of the group \(E^\ast\), where \(E=\mathbb Z^{\mathbb N}\) is the Specker group with discrete topology.