Lie groups in the symmetric group: reducing Ulam's problem to the simple case (Q6183573)

A group is called countably representable if it can be realised as a permutation group of a countable set. For cardinality reasons, this only makes sense for groups \(G\) such that \(|G| \leq 2^{\aleph_{0}}\), and it is trivial for countable groups. \textit{S. M. Ulam} asked in [A collection of mathematical problems. New York and London: Interscience Publishers (1960; Zbl 0086.24101)] whether Lie groups are countably representable. The answer to Ulam's question is positive in the case of linear Lie groups ([\textit{S. Thomas}. J. Group Theory, 4, 401--434 (1999; Zbl 0938.20025)] and [\textit{R. R. Kallman}. Fundam. Math., 1, 35-40 (2000; Zbl 0967.20002)]) and in the case of nilpotent Lie groups (the second author, [J. Group Theory 25, No. 5, 851--865 (2022; Zbl 1510.22004)]). The main result in the paper under review is Theorem 1.3: A Lie group is countably representable if and only if its semi-simple Levi factor is countably representable. In particular every solvable Lie group is countably representable (Theorem 1.1). Another step towards the solution of Ulam's problem is provided by Theorem 1.5, which establishes the equivalence of the following two statements: (i) every Lie group is countably representable; (ii) every connected simple Lie group with finite center is countably representable.