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mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, topological groups are the combination of groups and
topological spaces In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called point ...
, i.e. they are groups and topological spaces at the same time, such that the continuity condition for the group operations connects these two structures together and consequently they are not independent from each other. Topological groups were studied extensively in the period of 1925 to 1940. Haar and Weil (respectively in 1933 and 1940) showed that the
integrals In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...
and
Fourier series A Fourier series () is an Series expansion, expansion of a periodic function into a sum of trigonometric functions. The Fourier series is an example of a trigonometric series. By expressing a function as a sum of sines and cosines, many problems ...
are special cases of a construct that can be defined on a very wide class of topological groups. Topological groups, along with continuous group actions, are used to study continuous
symmetries Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations ...
, which have many applications, for example, in physics. In
functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...
, every
topological vector space In mathematics, a topological vector space (also called a linear topological space and commonly abbreviated TVS or t.v.s.) is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis. A topological vector space is a vector space that is als ...
is an additive topological group with the additional property that scalar multiplication is continuous; consequently, many results from the theory of topological groups can be applied to functional analysis.


Formal definition

A topological group, , is a
topological space In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a Geometry, geometrical space in which Closeness (mathematics), closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric Distance (mathematics), distance. More specifically, a to ...
that is also a group such that the group operation (in this case product): :, and the inversion map: :, are continuous.''i.e.'' Continuous means that for any open set , is open in the domain of . Here is viewed as a topological space with the
product topology In topology and related areas of mathematics, a product space is the Cartesian product of a family of topological spaces equipped with a natural topology called the product topology. This topology differs from another, perhaps more natural-seemin ...
. Such a topology is said to be compatible with the group operations and is called a group topology. ;Checking continuity The product map is continuous if and only if for any and any neighborhood of in , there exist neighborhoods of and of in such that , where . The inversion map is continuous if and only if for any and any neighborhood of in , there exists a neighborhood of in such that , where . To show that a topology is compatible with the group operations, it suffices to check that the map :, is continuous. Explicitly, this means that for any and any neighborhood in of , there exist neighborhoods of and of in such that . ;Additive notation This definition used notation for multiplicative groups; the equivalent for additive groups would be that the following two operations are continuous: :, :, . ;Hausdorffness Although not part of this definition, many authors require that the topology on be Hausdorff. One reason for this is that any topological group can be canonically associated with a Hausdorff topological group by taking an appropriate canonical quotient; this however, often still requires working with the original non-Hausdorff topological group. Other reasons, and some equivalent conditions, are discussed below. This article will not assume that topological groups are necessarily Hausdorff. ;Category In the language of
category theory Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations. It was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Category theory ...
, topological groups can be defined concisely as
group object In category theory, a branch of mathematics, group objects are certain generalizations of group (mathematics), groups that are built on more complicated structures than Set (mathematics), sets. A typical example of a group object is a topological gr ...
s in the
category of topological spaces In mathematics, the category of topological spaces, often denoted Top, is the category whose objects are topological spaces and whose morphisms are continuous maps. This is a category because the composition of two continuous maps is again con ...
, in the same way that ordinary groups are group objects in the
category of sets In the mathematical field of category theory, the category of sets, denoted by Set, is the category whose objects are sets. The arrows or morphisms between sets ''A'' and ''B'' are the functions from ''A'' to ''B'', and the composition of mor ...
. Note that the axioms are given in terms of the maps (binary product, unary inverse, and nullary identity), hence are categorical definitions.


Homomorphisms

A homomorphism of topological groups means a continuous
group homomorphism In mathematics, given two groups, (''G'',∗) and (''H'', ·), a group homomorphism from (''G'',∗) to (''H'', ·) is a function ''h'' : ''G'' → ''H'' such that for all ''u'' and ''v'' in ''G'' it holds that : h(u*v) = h(u) \cdot h(v) whe ...
. Topological groups, together with their homomorphisms, form a
category Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * Category ( ...
. A group homomorphism between topological groups is continuous if and only if it is continuous at ''some'' point. An isomorphism of topological groups is a
group isomorphism In abstract algebra, a group isomorphism is a function between two groups that sets up a bijection between the elements of the groups in a way that respects the given group operations. If there exists an isomorphism between two groups, then the ...
that is also a
homeomorphism In mathematics and more specifically in topology, a homeomorphism ( from Greek roots meaning "similar shape", named by Henri Poincaré), also called topological isomorphism, or bicontinuous function, is a bijective and continuous function ...
of the underlying topological spaces. This is stronger than simply requiring a continuous group isomorphism—the inverse must also be continuous. There are examples of topological groups that are isomorphic as ordinary groups but not as topological groups. Indeed, any non-discrete topological group is also a topological group when considered with the discrete topology. The underlying groups are the same, but as topological groups there is not an isomorphism.


Examples

Every group can be trivially made into a topological group by considering it with the
discrete topology In topology, a discrete space is a particularly simple example of a topological space or similar structure, one in which the points form a , meaning they are '' isolated'' from each other in a certain sense. The discrete topology is the finest to ...
; such groups are called
discrete group In mathematics, a topological group ''G'' is called a discrete group if there is no limit point in it (i.e., for each element in ''G'', there is a neighborhood which only contains that element). Equivalently, the group ''G'' is discrete if and ...
s. In this sense, the theory of topological groups subsumes that of ordinary groups. The
indiscrete topology In topology, a topological space with the trivial topology is one where the only open sets are the empty set and the entire space. Such spaces are commonly called indiscrete, anti-discrete, concrete or codiscrete. Intuitively, this has the conseque ...
(i.e. the trivial topology) also makes every group into a topological group. The
real number In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one- dimensional quantity such as a duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every re ...
s, \mathbb with the usual topology form a topological group under addition. Euclidean -space is also a topological group under addition, and more generally, every
topological vector space In mathematics, a topological vector space (also called a linear topological space and commonly abbreviated TVS or t.v.s.) is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis. A topological vector space is a vector space that is als ...
forms an (abelian) topological group. Some other examples of abelian topological groups are the
circle group In mathematics, the circle group, denoted by \mathbb T or , is the multiplicative group of all complex numbers with absolute value 1, that is, the unit circle in the complex plane or simply the unit complex numbers \mathbb T = \. The circle g ...
, or the
torus In geometry, a torus (: tori or toruses) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space one full revolution about an axis that is coplanarity, coplanar with the circle. The main types of toruses inclu ...
for any natural number . The
classical group In mathematics, the classical groups are defined as the special linear groups over the reals \mathbb, the complex numbers \mathbb and the quaternions \mathbb together with special automorphism groups of Bilinear form#Symmetric, skew-symmetric an ...
s are important examples of non-abelian topological groups. For instance, the
general linear group In mathematics, the general linear group of degree n is the set of n\times n invertible matrices, together with the operation of ordinary matrix multiplication. This forms a group, because the product of two invertible matrices is again inve ...
of all invertible -by-
matrices Matrix (: matrices or matrixes) or MATRIX may refer to: Science and mathematics * Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of numbers, symbols or expressions * Matrix (logic), part of a formula in prenex normal form * Matrix (biology), the ...
with real entries can be viewed as a topological group with the topology defined by viewing as a subspace of Euclidean space . Another classical group is the
orthogonal group In mathematics, the orthogonal group in dimension , denoted , is the Group (mathematics), group of isometry, distance-preserving transformations of a Euclidean space of dimension that preserve a fixed point, where the group operation is given by ...
, the group of all
linear map In mathematics, and more specifically in linear algebra, a linear map (also called a linear mapping, linear transformation, vector space homomorphism, or in some contexts linear function) is a mapping V \to W between two vector spaces that p ...
s from to itself that preserve the
length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with Dimension (physical quantity), dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a Base unit (measurement), base unit for length is chosen, ...
of all vectors. The orthogonal group is
compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact, a type of agreement used by U.S. states * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a t ...
as a topological space. Much of
Euclidean geometry Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to ancient Greek mathematics, Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry, ''Euclid's Elements, Elements''. Euclid's approach consists in assuming a small set ...
can be viewed as studying the structure of the orthogonal group, or the closely related group of
isometries In mathematics, an isometry (or congruence, or congruent transformation) is a distance-preserving transformation between metric spaces, usually assumed to be bijective. The word isometry is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἴσος ''isos'' mea ...
of . The groups mentioned so far are all
Lie group In mathematics, a Lie group (pronounced ) is a group (mathematics), group that is also a differentiable manifold, such that group multiplication and taking inverses are both differentiable. A manifold is a space that locally resembles Eucli ...
s, meaning that they are
smooth manifold In mathematics, a differentiable manifold (also differential manifold) is a type of manifold that is locally similar enough to a vector space to allow one to apply calculus. Any manifold can be described by a collection of charts (atlas). One may ...
s in such a way that the group operations are smooth, not just continuous. Lie groups are the best-understood topological groups; many questions about Lie groups can be converted to purely algebraic questions about
Lie algebra In mathematics, a Lie algebra (pronounced ) is a vector space \mathfrak g together with an operation called the Lie bracket, an alternating bilinear map \mathfrak g \times \mathfrak g \rightarrow \mathfrak g, that satisfies the Jacobi ident ...
s and then solved. An example of a topological group that is not a Lie group is the additive group \mathbb of
rational number In mathematics, a rational number is a number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction of two integers, a numerator and a non-zero denominator . For example, is a rational number, as is every integer (for example, The set of all ...
s, with the topology inherited from \mathbb. This is a
countable In mathematics, a Set (mathematics), set is countable if either it is finite set, finite or it can be made in one to one correspondence with the set of natural numbers. Equivalently, a set is ''countable'' if there exists an injective function fro ...
space, and it does not have the discrete topology. An important example for
number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...
is the group of ''p''-adic integers, for a
prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a Product (mathematics), product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime ...
, meaning the
inverse limit In mathematics, the inverse limit (also called the projective limit) is a construction that allows one to "glue together" several related objects, the precise gluing process being specified by morphisms between the objects. Thus, inverse limits ca ...
of the finite groups as ''n'' goes to infinity. The group is well behaved in that it is compact (in fact, homeomorphic to the
Cantor set In mathematics, the Cantor set is a set of points lying on a single line segment that has a number of unintuitive properties. It was discovered in 1874 by Henry John Stephen Smith and mentioned by German mathematician Georg Cantor in 1883. Throu ...
), but it differs from (real) Lie groups in that it is
totally disconnected In topology and related branches of mathematics, a totally disconnected space is a topological space that has only singletons as connected subsets. In every topological space, the singletons (and, when it is considered connected, the empty set) ...
. More generally, there is a theory of ''p''-adic Lie groups, including compact groups such as as well as
locally compact group In mathematics, a locally compact group is a topological group ''G'' for which the underlying topology is locally compact and Hausdorff. Locally compact groups are important because many examples of groups that arise throughout mathematics are lo ...
s such as , where is the locally compact field of ''p''-adic numbers. The group is a
pro-finite group In mathematics, a profinite group is a topological group that is in a certain sense assembled from a system of finite groups. The idea of using a profinite group is to provide a "uniform", or "synoptic", view of an entire system of finite groups. ...
; it is isomorphic to a subgroup of the product \prod_ \mathbb / p^n in such a way that its topology is induced by the product topology, where the finite groups \mathbb / p^n are given the discrete topology. Another large class of pro-finite groups important in number theory are
absolute Galois group In mathematics, the absolute Galois group ''GK'' of a field ''K'' is the Galois group of ''K''sep over ''K'', where ''K''sep is a separable closure of ''K''. Alternatively it is the group of all automorphisms of the algebraic closure of ''K'' ...
s. Some topological groups can be viewed as infinite dimensional Lie groups; this phrase is best understood informally, to include several different families of examples. For example, a
topological vector space In mathematics, a topological vector space (also called a linear topological space and commonly abbreviated TVS or t.v.s.) is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis. A topological vector space is a vector space that is als ...
, such as a
Banach space In mathematics, more specifically in functional analysis, a Banach space (, ) is a complete normed vector space. Thus, a Banach space is a vector space with a metric that allows the computation of vector length and distance between vectors and ...
or
Hilbert space In mathematics, a Hilbert space is a real number, real or complex number, complex inner product space that is also a complete metric space with respect to the metric induced by the inner product. It generalizes the notion of Euclidean space. The ...
, is an abelian topological group under addition. Some other infinite-dimensional groups that have been studied, with varying degrees of success, are loop groups, Kac–Moody groups, Diffeomorphism groups,
homeomorphism group In mathematics, particularly topology, the homeomorphism group of a topological space is the group consisting of all homeomorphisms from the space to itself with function composition as the group operation. They are important to the theory of top ...
s, and
gauge group A gauge group is a group of gauge symmetries of the Yang–Mills gauge theory of principal connections on a principal bundle. Given a principal bundle P\to X with a structure Lie group G, a gauge group is defined to be a group of its vertical ...
s. In every
Banach algebra In mathematics, especially functional analysis, a Banach algebra, named after Stefan Banach, is an associative algebra A over the real or complex numbers (or over a non-Archimedean complete normed field) that at the same time is also a Banach sp ...
with multiplicative identity, the set of invertible elements forms a topological group under multiplication. For example, the group of invertible
bounded operator In functional analysis and operator theory, a bounded linear operator is a linear transformation L : X \to Y between topological vector spaces (TVSs) X and Y that maps bounded subsets of X to bounded subsets of Y. If X and Y are normed vector ...
s on a Hilbert space arises this way.


Properties


Translation invariance

Every topological group's topology is , which by definition means that if for any a \in G, left or right multiplication by this element yields a homeomorphism G \to G. Consequently, for any a \in G and S \subseteq G, the subset S is
open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...
(resp. closed) in G if and only if this is true of its left translation a S := \ and right translation S a := \. If \mathcal is a neighborhood basis of the identity element in a topological group G then for all x \in X, x \mathcal := \ is a neighborhood basis of x in G. In particular, any group topology on a topological group is completely determined by any neighborhood basis at the identity element. If S is any subset of G and U is an open subset of G, then S U := \ is an open subset of G.


Symmetric neighborhoods

The inversion operation g \mapsto g^ on a topological group G is a homeomorphism from G to itself. A subset S \subseteq G is said to be
symmetric Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations ...
if S^ = S, where S^ := \left\. The closure of every symmetric set in a commutative topological group is symmetric. If is any subset of a commutative topological group , then the following sets are also symmetric: , , and . For any neighborhood in a commutative topological group of the identity element, there exists a symmetric neighborhood of the identity element such that , where note that is necessarily a symmetric neighborhood of the identity element. Thus every topological group has a neighborhood basis at the identity element consisting of symmetric sets. If is a
locally compact In topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space is called locally compact if, roughly speaking, each small portion of the space looks like a small portion of a compact space. More precisely, it is a topological space in which e ...
commutative group, then for any neighborhood in of the identity element, there exists a symmetric relatively compact neighborhood of the identity element such that (where is symmetric as well).


Uniform space

Every topological group can be viewed as a
uniform space In the mathematical field of topology, a uniform space is a topological space, set with additional mathematical structure, structure that is used to define ''uniform property, uniform properties'', such as complete space, completeness, uniform con ...
in two ways; the ''left uniformity'' turns all left multiplications into uniformly continuous maps while the ''right uniformity'' turns all right multiplications into uniformly continuous maps. If is not abelian, then these two need not coincide. The uniform structures allow one to talk about notions such as completeness,
uniform continuity In mathematics, a real function f of real numbers is said to be uniformly continuous if there is a positive real number \delta such that function values over any function domain interval of the size \delta are as close to each other as we want. In ...
and
uniform convergence In the mathematical field of analysis, uniform convergence is a mode of convergence of functions stronger than pointwise convergence. A sequence of functions (f_n) converges uniformly to a limiting function f on a set E as the function domain i ...
on topological groups.


Separation properties

If is an open subset of a commutative topological group and contains a compact set , then there exists a neighborhood of the identity element such that . As a uniform space, every commutative topological group is
completely regular In topology and related branches of mathematics, Tychonoff spaces and completely regular spaces are kinds of topological spaces. These conditions are examples of separation axioms. A Tychonoff space is any completely regular space that is also a ...
. Consequently, for a multiplicative topological group with identity element 1, the following are equivalent:
  1. is a T0-space (
    Kolmogorov Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov ( rus, Андре́й Никола́евич Колмого́ров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ kəlmɐˈɡorəf, a=Ru-Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov.ogg, 25 April 1903 – 20 October 1987) was a Soviet ...
    );
  2. is a T2-space ( Hausdorff);
  3. is a T3 ( Tychonoff);
  4. is closed in ;
  5. , where is a neighborhood basis of the identity element in ;
  6. for any x \in G such that x \neq 1, there exists a neighborhood in of the identity element such that x \not\in U.
A subgroup of a commutative topological group is discrete if and only if it has an
isolated point In mathematics, a point is called an isolated point of a subset (in a topological space ) if is an element of and there exists a neighborhood of that does not contain any other points of . This is equivalent to saying that the singleton i ...
. If is not Hausdorff, then one can obtain a Hausdorff group by passing to the quotient group , where is the closure of the identity. This is equivalent to taking the
Kolmogorov quotient In topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space ''X'' is a T0 space or Kolmogorov space (named after Andrey Kolmogorov) if for every pair of distinct points of ''X'', at least one of them has a neighborhood not containing the ...
of .


Metrisability

Let be a topological group. As with any topological space, we say that is
metrisable In topology and related areas of mathematics, a metrizable space is a topological space that is homeomorphic to a metric space. That is, a topological space (X, \tau) is said to be metrizable if there is a metric d : X \times X \to , \infty) su ...
if and only if there exists a metric on , which induces the same topology on G. A metric on is called * ''left-invariant'' (resp. ''right-invariant'') if and only if d(ax_,ax_)=d(x_,x_)(resp. d(x_a,x_a)=d(x_,x_)) for all a,x_,x_\in G (equivalently, d is left-invariant just in case the map x \mapsto ax is an
isometry In mathematics, an isometry (or congruence, or congruent transformation) is a distance-preserving transformation between metric spaces, usually assumed to be bijective. The word isometry is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἴσος ''isos'' me ...
from (G,d) to itself for each a \in G). * ''proper'' if and only if all open balls, B(r)=\ for r>0, are pre-compact. The Birkhoff–Kakutani theorem (named after mathematicians
Garrett Birkhoff Garrett Birkhoff (January 19, 1911 – November 22, 1996) was an American mathematician. He is best known for his work in lattice theory. The mathematician George Birkhoff (1884–1944) was his father. Life The son of the mathematician Ge ...
and
Shizuo Kakutani was a Japanese and American mathematician, best known for his eponymous fixed-point theorem. Biography Kakutani attended Tohoku University in Sendai, where his advisor was Tatsujirō Shimizu. At one point he spent two years at the Institu ...
) states that the following three conditions on a topological group are equivalent: # is ( Hausdorff and) first countable (equivalently: the identity element 1 is closed in , and there is a countable basis of neighborhoods for 1 in ). # is
metrisable In topology and related areas of mathematics, a metrizable space is a topological space that is homeomorphic to a metric space. That is, a topological space (X, \tau) is said to be metrizable if there is a metric d : X \times X \to , \infty) su ...
(as a topological space). # There is a left-invariant metric on that induces the given topology on . # There is a right-invariant metric on that induces the given topology on . Furthermore, the following are equivalent for any topological group : # is a
second countable In topology, a second-countable space, also called a completely separable space, is a topological space whose topology has a countable base. More explicitly, a topological space T is second-countable if there exists some countable collection \mat ...
locally compact In topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space is called locally compact if, roughly speaking, each small portion of the space looks like a small portion of a compact space. More precisely, it is a topological space in which e ...
(Hausdorff) space. # is a Polish,
locally compact In topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space is called locally compact if, roughly speaking, each small portion of the space looks like a small portion of a compact space. More precisely, it is a topological space in which e ...
(Hausdorff) space. # is properly
metrisable In topology and related areas of mathematics, a metrizable space is a topological space that is homeomorphic to a metric space. That is, a topological space (X, \tau) is said to be metrizable if there is a metric d : X \times X \to , \infty) su ...
(as a topological space). # There is a left-invariant, proper metric on that induces the given topology on . Note: As with the rest of the article we of assume here a Hausdorff topology. The implications 4 \Rightarrow 3 \Rightarrow 2 \Rightarrow 1 hold in any topological space. In particular 3 \Rightarrow 2 holds, since in particular any properly metrisable space is countable union of compact metrisable and thus separable (''cf.'' properties of compact metric spaces) subsets. The non-trivial implication 1 \Rightarrow 4 was first proved by Raimond Struble in 1974. An alternative approach was made by
Uffe Haagerup Uffe Valentin Haagerup (19 December 1949 – 5 July 2015) was a mathematician from Denmark. Biography Uffe Haagerup was born in Kolding, but grew up on the island of Funen, in the small town of Fåborg. The field of mathematics had his intere ...
and Agata Przybyszewska in 2006, the idea of the which is as follows: One relies on the construction of a left-invariant metric, d_, as in the case of first countable spaces. By local compactness, closed balls of sufficiently small radii are compact, and by normalising we can assume this holds for radius 1. Closing the open ball, , of radius 1 under multiplication yields a
clopen In topology, a clopen set (a portmanteau of closed-open set) in a topological space is a set which is both open and closed. That this is possible may seem counterintuitive, as the common meanings of and are antonyms, but their mathematical def ...
subgroup, , of , on which the metric d_ is proper. Since is open and is
second countable In topology, a second-countable space, also called a completely separable space, is a topological space whose topology has a countable base. More explicitly, a topological space T is second-countable if there exists some countable collection \mat ...
, the subgroup has at most countably many cosets. One now uses this sequence of cosets and the metric on to construct a proper metric on .


Subgroups

Every
subgroup In group theory, a branch of mathematics, a subset of a group G is a subgroup of G if the members of that subset form a group with respect to the group operation in G. Formally, given a group (mathematics), group under a binary operation  ...
of a topological group is itself a topological group when given the
subspace topology In topology and related areas of mathematics, a subspace of a topological space (''X'', ''𝜏'') is a subset ''S'' of ''X'' which is equipped with a topology induced from that of ''𝜏'' called the subspace topology (or the relative topology ...
. Every open subgroup is also closed in , since the complement of is the open set given by the union of open sets for . If is a subgroup of then the closure of is also a subgroup. Likewise, if is a normal subgroup of , the closure of is normal in .


Quotients and normal subgroups

If is a subgroup of , the set of left
coset In mathematics, specifically group theory, a subgroup of a group may be used to decompose the underlying set of into disjoint, equal-size subsets called cosets. There are ''left cosets'' and ''right cosets''. Cosets (both left and right) ...
s with the
quotient topology In topology and related areas of mathematics, the quotient space of a topological space under a given equivalence relation is a new topological space constructed by endowing the quotient set of the original topological space with the quotient to ...
is called a
homogeneous space In mathematics, a homogeneous space is, very informally, a space that looks the same everywhere, as you move through it, with movement given by the action of a group. Homogeneous spaces occur in the theories of Lie groups, algebraic groups and ...
for . The quotient map q : G \to G / H is always
open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...
. For example, for a positive integer , the
sphere A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...
is a homogeneous space for the
rotation group In mathematics, the orthogonal group in dimension , denoted , is the group of distance-preserving transformations of a Euclidean space of dimension that preserve a fixed point, where the group operation is given by composing transformations. ...
in , with . A homogeneous space is Hausdorff if and only if is closed in . Partly for this reason, it is natural to concentrate on closed subgroups when studying topological groups. If is a
normal subgroup In abstract algebra, a normal subgroup (also known as an invariant subgroup or self-conjugate subgroup) is a subgroup that is invariant under conjugation by members of the group of which it is a part. In other words, a subgroup N of the group ...
of , then the
quotient group A quotient group or factor group is a mathematical group obtained by aggregating similar elements of a larger group using an equivalence relation that preserves some of the group structure (the rest of the structure is "factored out"). For ex ...
becomes a topological group when given the quotient topology. It is Hausdorff if and only if is closed in . For example, the quotient group is isomorphic to the circle group . In any topological group, the
identity component In mathematics, specifically group theory, the identity component of a group (mathematics) , group ''G'' (also known as its unity component) refers to several closely related notions of the largest connected space , connected subgroup of ''G'' co ...
(i.e., the connected component containing the identity element) is a closed normal subgroup. If is the identity component and ''a'' is any point of , then the left coset is the component of containing ''a''. So the collection of all left cosets (or right cosets) of in is equal to the collection of all components of . It follows that the quotient group is
totally disconnected In topology and related branches of mathematics, a totally disconnected space is a topological space that has only singletons as connected subsets. In every topological space, the singletons (and, when it is considered connected, the empty set) ...
.


Closure and compactness

In any commutative topological group, the product (assuming the group is multiplicative) of a compact set and a closed set is a closed set. Furthermore, for any subsets and of , . If is a subgroup of a commutative topological group and if is a neighborhood in of the identity element such that is closed, then is closed. Every discrete subgroup of a Hausdorff commutative topological group is closed.


Isomorphism theorems

The
isomorphism theorem In mathematics, specifically abstract algebra, the isomorphism theorems (also known as Noether's isomorphism theorems) are theorems that describe the relationship among quotients, homomorphisms, and subobjects. Versions of the theorems exist for ...
s from ordinary group theory are not always true in the topological setting. This is because a bijective homomorphism need not be an isomorphism of topological groups. For example, a native version of the first isomorphism theorem is false for topological groups: if f:G\to H is a morphism of topological groups (that is, a continuous homomorphism), it is not necessarily true that the induced homomorphism \tilde :G/\ker f\to \mathrm(f) is an isomorphism of topological groups; it will be a bijective, continuous homomorphism, but it will not necessarily be a homeomorphism. In other words, it will not necessarily admit an inverse in the
category Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * Category ( ...
of topological groups. For example, consider the identity map from the set of real numbers equipped with the discrete topology to the set of real numbers equipped with the Euclidean topology. This is a group homomorphism, and it is continuous because any function out of a discrete space is continuous, but it is not an isomorphism of topological groups because its inverse is not continuous. There is a version of the first isomorphism theorem for topological groups, which may be stated as follows: if f : G \to H is a continuous homomorphism, then the induced homomorphism from to is an isomorphism if and only if the map is open onto its image. The third isomorphism theorem, however, is true more or less verbatim for topological groups, as one may easily check.


Hilbert's fifth problem

There are several strong results on the relation between topological groups and Lie groups. First, every continuous homomorphism of Lie groups G \to H is smooth. It follows that a topological group has a unique structure of a Lie group if one exists. Also, Cartan's theorem says that every closed subgroup of a Lie group is a Lie subgroup, in particular a smooth
submanifold In mathematics, a submanifold of a manifold M is a subset S which itself has the structure of a manifold, and for which the inclusion map S \rightarrow M satisfies certain properties. There are different types of submanifolds depending on exactly ...
. Hilbert's fifth problem asked whether a topological group that is a
topological manifold In topology, a topological manifold is a topological space that locally resembles real ''n''- dimensional Euclidean space. Topological manifolds are an important class of topological spaces, with applications throughout mathematics. All manifolds ...
must be a Lie group. In other words, does have the structure of a smooth manifold, making the group operations smooth? As shown by
Andrew Gleason Andrew Mattei Gleason (19212008) was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to widely varied areas of mathematics, including the solution of Hilbert's fifth problem, and was a leader in reform and innovation in teaching at ...
,
Deane Montgomery Deane Montgomery (September 2, 1909 – March 15, 1992) was an American mathematician specializing in topology who was one of the contributors to the final resolution of Hilbert's fifth problem in the 1950s. He served as president of the Americ ...
, and
Leo Zippin Leo Zippin (January 25, 1905 – May 11, 1995) was an American mathematician. He is best known for solving Hilbert's fifth problem, Hilbert's Fifth Problem with Deane Montgomery and Andrew M. Gleason in 1952. Biography Leo Zippin was born in 19 ...
, the answer to this problem is yes. In fact, has a
real analytic In mathematics, an analytic function is a function (mathematics), function that is locally given by a convergent series, convergent power series. There exist both real analytic functions and complex analytic functions. Functions of each type are ...
structure. Using the smooth structure, one can define the Lie algebra of , an object of
linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrix (mathemat ...
that determines a connected group up to
covering space In topology, a covering or covering projection is a continuous function, map between topological spaces that, intuitively, Local property, locally acts like a Projection (mathematics), projection of multiple copies of a space onto itself. In par ...
s. As a result, the solution to Hilbert's fifth problem reduces the classification of topological groups that are topological manifolds to an algebraic problem, albeit a complicated problem in general. The theorem also has consequences for broader classes of topological groups. First, every
compact group In mathematics, a compact (topological) group is a topological group whose topology realizes it as a compact topological space (when an element of the group is operated on, the result is also within the group). Compact groups are a natural gen ...
(understood to be Hausdorff) is an inverse limit of compact Lie groups. (One important case is an inverse limit of finite groups, called a
profinite group In mathematics, a profinite group is a topological group that is in a certain sense assembled from a system of finite groups. The idea of using a profinite group is to provide a "uniform", or "synoptic", view of an entire system of finite groups. ...
. For example, the group of ''p''-adic integers and the
absolute Galois group In mathematics, the absolute Galois group ''GK'' of a field ''K'' is the Galois group of ''K''sep over ''K'', where ''K''sep is a separable closure of ''K''. Alternatively it is the group of all automorphisms of the algebraic closure of ''K'' ...
of a field are profinite groups.) Furthermore, every connected locally compact group is an inverse limit of connected Lie groups. At the other extreme, a totally disconnected locally compact group always contains a compact open subgroup, which is necessarily a profinite group. (For example, the locally compact group contains the compact open subgroup , which is the inverse limit of the finite groups as ' goes to infinity.)


Representations of compact or locally compact groups

An action of a topological group on a topological space ''X'' is a
group action In mathematics, a group action of a group G on a set S is a group homomorphism from G to some group (under function composition) of functions from S to itself. It is said that G acts on S. Many sets of transformations form a group under ...
of on ''X'' such that the corresponding function is continuous. Likewise, a representation of a topological group on a real or complex topological vector space ''V'' is a continuous action of on ''V'' such that for each , the map from ''V'' to itself is linear. Group actions and representation theory are particularly well understood for compact groups, generalizing what happens for
finite group In abstract algebra, a finite group is a group whose underlying set is finite. Finite groups often arise when considering symmetry of mathematical or physical objects, when those objects admit just a finite number of structure-preserving tra ...
s. For example, every finite-dimensional (real or complex) representation of a compact group is a direct sum of irreducible representations. An infinite-dimensional unitary representation of a compact group can be decomposed as a Hilbert-space direct sum of irreducible representations, which are all finite-dimensional; this is part of the Peter–Weyl theorem. For example, the theory of
Fourier series A Fourier series () is an Series expansion, expansion of a periodic function into a sum of trigonometric functions. The Fourier series is an example of a trigonometric series. By expressing a function as a sum of sines and cosines, many problems ...
describes the decomposition of the unitary representation of the circle group on the complex Hilbert space . The irreducible representations of are all 1-dimensional, of the form for integers (where is viewed as a subgroup of the multiplicative group *). Each of these representations occurs with multiplicity 1 in . The irreducible representations of all compact connected Lie groups have been classified. In particular, the character theory, character of each irreducible representation is given by the Weyl character formula. More generally, locally compact groups have a rich theory of harmonic analysis, because they admit a natural notion of measure (mathematics), measure and integral, given by the Haar measure. Every unitary representation of a locally compact group can be described as a direct integral of irreducible unitary representations. (The decomposition is essentially unique if is of C*-algebra#Type for C*-algebras, Type I, which includes the most important examples such as abelian groups and semisimple Lie groups.) A basic example is the Fourier transform, which decomposes the action of the additive group \mathbb on the Hilbert space as a direct integral of the irreducible unitary representations of \mathbb. The irreducible unitary representations of \mathbb are all 1-dimensional, of the form for . The irreducible unitary representations of a locally compact group may be infinite-dimensional. A major goal of representation theory, related to the Langlands classification of admissible representations, is to find the unitary dual (the space of all irreducible unitary representations) for the semisimple Lie groups. The unitary dual is known in many cases such as , but not all. For a locally compact abelian group , every irreducible unitary representation has dimension 1. In this case, the unitary dual \hat is a group, in fact another locally compact abelian group. Pontryagin duality states that for a locally compact abelian group , the dual of \hat is the original group . For example, the dual group of the integers is the circle group , while the group \mathbb of real numbers is isomorphic to its own dual. Every locally compact group has a good supply of irreducible unitary representations; for example, enough representations to distinguish the points of (the Gelfand–Raikov theorem). By contrast, representation theory for topological groups that are not locally compact has so far been developed only in special situations, and it may not be reasonable to expect a general theory. For example, there are many abelian Banach manifold, Banach–Lie groups for which every representation on Hilbert space is trivial.


Homotopy theory of topological groups

Topological groups are special among all topological spaces, even in terms of their homotopy type. One basic point is that a topological group determines a path-connected topological space, the classifying space (which classifies principal bundle, principal -bundles over topological spaces, under mild hypotheses). The group is isomorphic in the model category#Homotopy and the homotopy category, homotopy category to the loop space of ; that implies various restrictions on the homotopy type of . Some of these restrictions hold in the broader context of H-spaces. For example, the fundamental group of a topological group is abelian. (More generally, the Whitehead product on the homotopy groups of is zero.) Also, for any field ''k'', the cohomology ring has the structure of a Hopf algebra. In view of structure theorems on Hopf algebras by Heinz Hopf and Armand Borel, this puts strong restrictions on the possible cohomology rings of topological groups. In particular, if is a path-connected topological group whose rational cohomology ring is finite-dimensional in each degree, then this ring must be a free graded-commutative algebra over \mathbb, that is, the tensor product of algebras, tensor product of a polynomial ring on generators of even degree with an exterior algebra on generators of odd degree. In particular, for a connected Lie group , the rational cohomology ring of is an exterior algebra on generators of odd degree. Moreover, a connected Lie group has a maximal compact subgroup ''K'', which is unique up to conjugation, and the inclusion of ''K'' into is a homotopy equivalence. So describing the homotopy types of Lie groups reduces to the case of compact Lie groups. For example, the maximal compact subgroup of is the circle group , and the homogeneous space can be identified with the hyperbolic plane. Since the hyperbolic plane is contractible space, contractible, the inclusion of the circle group into is a homotopy equivalence. Finally, compact connected Lie groups have been classified by Wilhelm Killing, Élie Cartan, and Hermann Weyl. As a result, there is an essentially complete description of the possible homotopy types of Lie groups. For example, a compact connected Lie group of dimension at most 3 is either a torus, the group SU(2) (diffeomorphic to the 3-sphere ), or its quotient group (diffeomorphic to ).


Complete topological group

Information about convergence of nets and filters, such as definitions and properties, can be found in the article about filters in topology.


Canonical uniformity on a commutative topological group

This article will henceforth assume that any topological group that we consider is an additive commutative topological group with identity element 0. The diagonal of X is the set \Delta_X := \ and for any N \subseteq X containing 0, the canonical entourage or canonical vicinities around N is the set \Delta_X(N) := \ = \bigcup_ [(y + N) \times \] = \Delta_X + (N \times \) For a topological group (X, \tau), the canonical uniformity on X is the Uniform space, uniform structure induced by the set of all canonical entourages \Delta(N) as N ranges over all neighborhoods of 0 in X. That is, it is the upward closure of the following prefilter on X \times X, \left\ where this prefilter forms what is known as a base of entourages of the canonical uniformity. For a commutative additive group X, a fundamental system of entourages \mathcal is called a translation-invariant uniformity if for every B \in \mathcal, (x, y) \in B if and only if (x + z, y + z) \in B for all x, y, z \in X. A uniformity \mathcal is called translation-invariant if it has a base of entourages that is translation-invariant.


Cauchy prefilters and nets

The general theory of
uniform space In the mathematical field of topology, a uniform space is a topological space, set with additional mathematical structure, structure that is used to define ''uniform property, uniform properties'', such as complete space, completeness, uniform con ...
s has its own definition of a "Cauchy prefilter" and "Cauchy net." For the canonical uniformity on X, these reduces down to the definition described below. Suppose x_ = \left(x_i\right)_ is a net in X and y_ = \left(y_j\right)_ is a net in Y. Make I \times J into a directed set by declaring (i, j) \leq \left(i_2, j_2\right) if and only if i \leq i_2 \text j \leq j_2. Then x_ \times y_: = \left(x_i, y_j\right)_ denotes the product net. If X = Y then the image of this net under the addition map X \times X \to X denotes the sum of these two nets: x_ + y_: = \left(x_i + y_j\right)_ and similarly their difference is defined to be the image of the product net under the subtraction map: x_ - y_: = \left(x_i - y_j\right)_. A Net (mathematics), net x_ = \left(x_i\right)_ in an additive topological group X is called a Cauchy net if \left(x_i - x_j\right)_ \to 0 \text X or equivalently, if for every neighborhood N of 0 in X, there exists some i_0 \in I such that x_i - x_j \in N for all indices i, j \geq i_0. A Cauchy sequence is a Cauchy net that is a sequence. If B is a subset of an additive group X and N is a set containing 0, thenB is said to be an N-small set or small of order N if B - B \subseteq N. A prefilter \mathcal on an additive topological group X called a Cauchy prefilter if it satisfies any of the following equivalent conditions:
  1. \mathcal - \mathcal \to 0 in X, where \mathcal - \mathcal := \ is a prefilter.
  2. \ \to 0 in X, where \ is a prefilter equivalent to \mathcal - \mathcal.
  3. For every neighborhood N of 0 in X, \mathcal contains some N-small set (that is, there exists some B \in \mathcal such that B - B \subseteq N).
and if X is commutative then also:
  1. For every neighborhood N of 0 in X, there exists some B \in \mathcal and some x \in X such that B \subseteq x + N.
* It suffices to check any of the above condition for any given neighborhood basis of 0 in X. Suppose \mathcal is a prefilter on a commutative topological group X and x \in X. Then \mathcal \to x in X if and only if x \in \operatorname \mathcal and \mathcal is Cauchy.


Complete commutative topological group

Recall that for any S \subseteq X, a prefilter \mathcal ''on S'' is necessarily a subset of \wp(S); that is, \mathcal \subseteq \wp(S). A subset S of a topological group X is called a complete subset if it satisfies any of the following equivalent conditions:
  1. Every Cauchy prefilter \mathcal \subseteq \wp(S) on S Filters in topology, converges to at least one point of S. * If X is Hausdorff then every prefilter on S will converge to at most one point of X. But if X is not Hausdorff then a prefilter may converge to multiple points in X. The same is true for nets.
  2. Every Cauchy net in S converges to at least one point of S;
  3. Every Cauchy filter \mathcal on S converges to at least one point of S.
  4. S is a Complete uniform space, complete uniform space (under the point-set topology definition of "complete uniform space") when S is endowed with the uniformity induced on it by the canonical uniformity of X;
A subset S is called a sequentially complete subset if every Cauchy sequence in S (or equivalently, every elementary Cauchy filter/prefilter on S) converges to at least one point of S. * Importantly, convergence outside of S is allowed: If X is not Hausdorff and if every Cauchy prefilter on S converges to some point of S, then S will be complete even if some or all Cauchy prefilters on S ''also'' converge to points(s) in the complement X \setminus S. In short, there is no requirement that these Cauchy prefilters on S converge ''only'' to points in S. The same can be said of the convergence of Cauchy nets in S. ** As a consequence, if a commutative topological group X is ''not'' Hausdorff, then every subset of the closure of \, say S \subseteq \operatorname \, is complete (since it is clearly compact and every compact set is necessarily complete). So in particular, if S \neq \varnothing (for example, if S a is singleton set such as S = \) then S would be complete even though ''every'' Cauchy net in S (and every Cauchy prefilter on S), converges to ''every'' point in \operatorname \ (include those points in \operatorname \ that are not in S). ** This example also shows that complete subsets (indeed, even compact subsets) of a non-Hausdorff space may fail to be closed (for example, if \varnothing \neq S \subseteq \operatorname \ then S is closed if and only if S = \operatorname \). A commutative topological group X is called a complete group if any of the following equivalent conditions hold:
  1. X is complete as a subset of itself.
  2. Every Cauchy net in X Net (mathematics), converges to at least one point of X.
  3. There exists a neighborhood of 0 in X that is also a complete subset of X. * This implies that every locally compact commutative topological group is complete.
  4. When endowed with its canonical uniformity, X becomes is a complete uniform space. * In the general theory of
    uniform space In the mathematical field of topology, a uniform space is a topological space, set with additional mathematical structure, structure that is used to define ''uniform property, uniform properties'', such as complete space, completeness, uniform con ...
    s, a uniform space is called a complete uniform space if each Cauchy Net (mathematics), filter in X converges in (X, \tau) to some point of X.
A topological group is called sequentially complete if it is a sequentially complete subset of itself. Neighborhood basis: Suppose C is a completion of a commutative topological group X with X \subseteq C and that \mathcal is a neighborhood base of the origin in X. Then the family of sets \left\ is a neighborhood basis at the origin in C. Let X and Y be topological groups, D \subseteq X, and f : D \to Y be a map. Then f : D \to Y is uniformly continuous if for every neighborhood U of the origin in X, there exists a neighborhood V of the origin in Y such that for all x, y \in D, if y - x \in U then f(y) - f(x) \in V.


Generalizations

Various generalizations of topological groups can be obtained by weakening the continuity conditions: * A semitopological group is a group with a topology such that for each the two functions defined by and are continuous. * A quasitopological group is a semitopological group in which the function mapping elements to their inverses is also continuous. * A paratopological group is a group with a topology such that the group operation is continuous.


See also

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Notes


Citations


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Topological Group Topological groups, Lie groups Fourier analysis