Some new results on the Chu duality of discrete groups (Q857851)

Within the class of all locally compact, maximally almost periodic groups \textit{H.\ Chu} [Trans.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc. 123, 310--324 (1966; Zbl 0158.03002)] established a duality theory which contains the Pontryagin and Tannaka-Kreǐn dualities. For a topological group \(G\) let \(G_n^{x}\) be the set of all continuous \(n\)-dimensional unitary representations of \(G\) equipped with the compact-open topology. By a result of \textit{M.\ Goto} [Proc.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 12, 41--46 (1961; Zbl 0132.27704)] \(G_n^{x}\) is a locally compact and uniformizable space. Let \(G^x\) be the topological sum of all \(G_n^{x}\). Then \(G^x\) is called the Chu dual of \(G\). It was shown by \textit{H.\ Chu} [loc.\ cit.] that the set \(G^{xx}\) of all quasi-representations of \(G^x\) equipped with the compact-open topology is a topological group with pointwise multiplication as composition. \(G^{xx}\) is called the Chu quasi-dual of \(G\). The evaluation map \(\epsilon _G: G\rightarrow G^{xx}\) is a group homomorphism, which is injective iff \(G\) is maximally almost periodic. It is said that \(G\) is Chu-reflexive, when \(\epsilon_G\) is an isomorphism of topological groups. It is known that every Moore group has this property. For any group \(G\) its commutator subgroup is denoted by \(G^\prime\). If \(G\) has finite exponent, then \(\exp(G)\) denotes the least common multiple of all the orders of elements in \(G\). For a topological group \(G\) mdus(\(G\)) denotes the minimal natural number \(n\) such that the continuous unitary representations of dimension less or equal \(n\) separate the points in \(G\). The main theorem of chapter 3 is the following: Let \(G\) be a discrete \(FC\) group and assume that there is a natural number \(n\) with \(\exp(G^\prime)\leq n\) and mdus\((G/H)\leq n\) for all normal subgroups \(H\) of \(G\) which are cofinite in \(G^\prime\). Then the group is Chu-reflexive. This result implies the following interesting corollary: Let \(G=\sum _{i\in I} F_i\), where \(F_i\) is a finite simple non-Abelian group for each \(i\in I\). Then the group \(G\) endowed with the discrete topology is Chu-reflexive iff the set \(\{\exp(F_i):i\in I\}\) is bounded. \textit{S.\ Takahashi} [Tôhoku Math.\ J.\ 4, 115--121 (1952; Zbl 0047.26101)] constructed for each locally compact group \(G\) a locally compact group \(G_T\) such that \(G_T\) is maximally almost periodic and the closure of \(G_T^\prime\) is compact. The group \(G_T\) is called the Takahashi quasi-dual of \(G\). In chapter 4 the authors are able to characterize all locally compact groups for which the Takahashi quasi-dual and the Chu quasi-dual are topologically isomorphic. As a consequence, the group \(G\) has this property in the following cases: (i) \(G\) is a discrete, simple, maximally almost periodic group; (ii) \(G\) is a weak sum of a family \(\{F_i\}_{i\in \mathbb{N}}\), where \(F^\prime_i\) is simple and \(\exp(F_i)\) goes to infinity. The following attractive question of \textit{H.\ Chu} [loc.\ cit.] remains open: Is the discrete free group of two generators Chu-reflexive?