No label defined (Q4023792)

If the multiplicative group of \(p\)-adic units acts on the additive group of \(p\)-adic integers, then the associated orbit hypergroup becomes compact and almost discrete, i.e., the identity is the only non-isolated point of this countably infinite hypergroup. Hypergroups of this type were investigated in different ways by C. F. Dunkl and D. Ramirez, R. I. Jewett, K. A. Ross, R. Spector, R. Vrem, and others. They may be regarded as hypergroups which are constructed via successive joins of hypergroups with two elements and then taking a projective limit. The main purpose of the thesis under review is to study general compact almost discrete hypergroups and to classify them at least in a weak sense. To achieve this, several constructions concerning hypergroups are introduced and studied in a systematic way; in particular, projective and inductive limits of hypergroups are investigated. Moreover, the join of hypergroups is generalized by a construction which is called substitution of open subhypergroups. This construction appears in several interesting examples and has some nice universal properties. Moreover, the dual space of hypergroups constructed in this way can be determined completely. As a main result of this paper it is shown that all compact almost discrete hypergroups can be constructed from exact projective systems of finite hypergroups via taking successive substitutions and then a projective limit. Moreover, all compact almost discrete orbit hypergroups associated with compact abelian groups are classified. The main results of this thesis are published now in the following papers of the author: [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 67, 617-648 (1993; Zbl 0821.43003)], [Hokkaido Math. J. 23, 143-183 (1994; Zbl 0821.43004)], [Discrete hypergroups generated by successive substitutions, In: Probability measures on groups and related structures (Proc. Conf., Oberwolfach, 1994, Eds.: H. Heyer, A. Mukherjea), pp. 392-405, World Scientific 1995], [Can. J. Math. 48, 210-224 (1996; Zbl 0851.43003)], and [Monatsh. Math. 122, 239-250 (1996)].