On locally finite \(p\)-groups and a problem of Philip Hall's (Q687620)

The authors give a new method of constructing complete locally finite \(p\)-groups. P. Hall was the first to ask if such groups exist, and it was soon noticed that they must be uncountable. In 1985 S. Thomas published the first example of a complete locally finite \(p\)-group. The construction given here has the advantage of not using any set theory beyond ZFC. In a second result the authors show how to construct \(2^{\lambda^ +}\) non-isomorphic complete universal locally finite groups of cardinality \(\lambda^ +\) for each infinite cardinal \(\lambda\) satisfying \(\lambda=\lambda^{\aleph_ 0}\). This extends previous work of MacIntyre and Shelah, Hicken and Thomas. Again no significant set theory is used. A noteworthy feature of the article is the introduction of torsion- complete wreath products. These lie between the restricted wreath product \(G\text{ wr }A\) and the unrestricted wreath product \(G \overline{\text{wr}} A\), where \(A\) is a separable abelian \(p\)-group.