A characterization of the circle group via uniqueness of roots (Q617725)

The classical notion of torsion in group theory was extended to topological groups by several authors since the 1940s, see e.g., the survey by the first author of the article under review [Topol. Proc. 26(2001--2002), No. 2, 505--532 (2002; Zbl 1082.22001)], and the references therein. Given a prime number \(p\), an element \(x\) of a topological group \(G\) is called \textit{topologically \(p\)-torsion} if \(x^{p^n}\longrightarrow 1\) when \(n\to \infty\). A nice example (see [loc. cit.]) is the group of integers \(\mathbb{Z}\) with the \(p\)-adic topology, where every element is topologically \(p\)-torsion. Also, an element \(x\) of a topological group \(G\) is called \textit{topologically torsion} if \(\lim_{n\to \infty} x^{n!}=1\). Both of these notions can be subsumed under the following general definition for a topological group: for any sequence \(\underline{a}=(a_n)_{n\in \mathbb{N}}\) of integer numbers, a topological group satisfies the \textit{sequential limit law} \(\underline{a}\) if for any element \(x\in G\), \(x^{a_n}\longrightarrow 1\) when \(n\to \infty\). The authors consider the subgroup \(S(x)\subset \mathbb{Z}^{\mathbb{N}}\) consisting of all sequential limit laws satisfied by the element \(x\in G\) and the set \(\mathfrak{g}(x)\) consisting of all elements in \(G\) that satisfy all sequential limit laws which are satisfied by \(x\). They extend these definitions to subsets \(H\subseteq G\) and say that \(H\) is \(\mathfrak{g}\)-closed if \(\mathfrak{g}(H)=H\). The main result of the article provides a nice characterization of locally compact groups \(G\) in terms of all their cyclic or countable subgroups that are \(\mathfrak{g}\)-closed: either the group \(G\) is isomorphic to the circle group \(\mathbb{T}\), or \(G\) is a subgroup of the discrete group of roots of unity \(\mathbb{Q}/\mathbb{Z}\).