Covering group theory for compact groups (Q5939620)

In the paper, a homomorphism between topological groups is assumed continuous. All topological groups are Hausdorff. The authors and \textit{C. Stallman} have introduced in [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 351, 1403-1422 (1999; Zbl 0909.22007)] the following notion: Let \(G, H\) be topological groups. A cover is an open epimorphism \(\varphi: G\rightarrow H\) with central, prodiscrete kernel. (If the kernel of \(\varphi\) is discrete, \(\varphi\) is called a traditional cover.) A similar definition was given in 1950 by Y. Kawada, in which the kernel is not necessarily complete. In Kawada's theory a uniqueness theorem for universal covers does not hold as the authors have shown recently in [Topology Appl. 114, 141-186 (2001; Zbl 0982.22002)]. So Kawada stated a wrong assertion. Covers in the category \(\mathcal{K}\) of compact, connected groups are epimorphisms with totally disconnected kernel. For \(G, \overline{G}\in \mathcal{K}\) let \(\sigma: \overline{G}\rightarrow G\) be a cover. The authors call \(\overline{G}\) a \(\mathcal{K}\)-universal cover of \(G\) and \(\sigma\) a \(\mathcal{K}\)-universal covering epimorphism of \(G\) if for any \(K\in \mathcal{K}\) and cover \(\psi: K\rightarrow G\) there is a cover \(\sigma': \overline{G}\rightarrow K\) such that \(\psi\circ\sigma^\prime=\sigma\). In this paper, a group \(G\in\mathcal{K}\) is called simply connected in \(\mathcal{K}\) if for every homomorphism \(h:G\rightarrow H\) and traditional cover \(f:K\rightarrow H\), where \(H, K\in\mathcal{K}\), there is a homomorphism \(h^\prime :G\rightarrow K\) such that \(f\circ h^\prime =h\). As the authors remark, \(h^\prime\) is unique. The authors show in Theorem 1 that for any \(G\in \mathcal{K}\) always a \(\mathcal{K}\)-universal covering epimorphism \(\sigma :\overline{G}\rightarrow G\) exists, and \(\overline{G}\) is of the form \(\prod S_\alpha\times \Sigma ^\lambda\). (\(\Sigma\) denotes the universal solenoid and \(S_\alpha\) is any simply connected, compact, simple Lie group.) Additionally, \(G=\overline{G}\) iff \(G\) is simply connected. Let \(G\in \mathcal{K}\) with \(\mathcal{K}\)-universal covering \(\sigma:\overline{G}\rightarrow G\). Then the kernel of \(\sigma\) is called the \(\mathcal{K}\)-fundamental group of \(G\), which is denoted by \(\pi_{1}^\mathcal{K}(G)\). If \(G\in \mathcal{K}\) is arcwise connected, then \(\pi_1^\mathcal{K}(G)\) is a profinite completion of the (traditional) fundamental group \(\pi_1(G)\) (Theorem 2). If \(G\in \mathcal{K}\) is Abelian, then the authors can describe the structure of \(\pi_1^\mathcal{K}(G)\) -- see Theorem 4 and Corollary 3. In Theorem 6 the following structure theorem for compact, connected, Abelian groups \(G\) is proved: \(G\) is of the form \(\underleftarrow{\lim}((\mathbb{T}^\lambda)_\alpha, \pi_{\alpha \beta})\), where each \(\pi_{\alpha \beta}: (\mathbb{T^\lambda})_\beta \rightarrow (\mathbb{T^\lambda})_\alpha\) is a cover with finite kernel, and \(\lambda =\dim G\). If \(G\) is metrisable, then one can take the family \(((\mathbb{T^\lambda})_\alpha, \pi_{\alpha \beta})\) to be countable and totally ordered. The paper ends with three examples and five interesting problems.