Balanced and functionally balanced P-groups

In relation to Itzkowitz’s problem [5], we show that a c-bounded P-group is balanced if and only if it is functionally balanced.We prove that for an arbitrary P-group, being functionally balanced is equivalent to being strongly functionally balanced. A special focus is given to the uniform free topological group defined over a uniform P-space. In particular, we show that this group is (functionally) balanced precisely when its subsets Bn, consisting of words of length at most n, are all (resp., functionally) balanced.

On group uniformities on square of a space and extending pseudometrics II

We find topological conditions on a space X under which the left (right, or two-sided) uniformity of the free topological group F(X) induces the universal uniformity or the product uniformity ux × ux on the square of X. Special attention is given to kω metrisable spaces. The main technical tool in the paper is an extension of certain continuous pseudometrics from X2 to F(X) considered by the author in the previous volume of this journal.

On group uniformities on the square of a space and extending pseudometrics

We give some conditions under which, for a given pair (d1, d2) of continuous pseudometrics respectively on X and X3, there exists a continuous semi-norm N on the free topological group F(X) such that N(x · y−1) = d1(x, y) and N(x · y · t−1 · z−1) ≥ d2((x, y), (z, t)) for all x, y, z, t ∈ X. The “extension” results are applied to characterise thin subsets of free topological groups and obtain some relationships between natural uniformities on X2 and those induced by the group uniformities *V, V* and *V* of F(X).

Open subgroups of free abelian topological groups

We prove that any open subgroup of the free abelian topological group on a completely regular space is a free abelian topological group. Moreover, the free topological bases of both groups have the same covering dimension. The prehistory of this result is as follows. The celebrated Nielsen–Schreier theorem states that every subgroup of a free group is free, and it is equally well known that every subgroup of a free abelian group is free abelian. The analogous result is not true for free (abelian) topological groups [1,5]. However, there exist certain sufficient conditions for a subgroup of a free topological group to be topologically free [2]; in particular, an open subgroup of a free topological group on a kω-space is topologically free. The corresponding question for free abelian topological groups asked 8 years ago by Morris [11] proved to be more difficult and remained open even within the realm of kω-spaces. In the present paper a comprehensive answer to this question is obtained.

LECs, Local Mixers, Topological Groups and Special Products

We prove that every (locally) contractible topological group is (L)EC and apply these results to homeomorphism groups, free topological groups, reduced products and symmetric products. Our main results are: The free topological group of a θ-contractible space is equiconnected. A paracompact and weakly locally contractible space is locally equiconnected if and only if it has a local mixer. There exist compact metric contractible spaces X whose reduced (symmetric) products are not retracts of the Graev free topological groups F(X) (A(X)) (thus correcting results we published ibidem).

Metrizability of subgroups of free topological groups

It is shown that any sequential subgroup of a free topological group is either sequential of order ω1 or discrete. Hence any metrizable subgroup of a free topological group is discrete.

Local invariance of free topological groups

In 1948, M. I. Graev [2] proved that the free topological group on a completely regular Hausdorff space is Hausdorff, by showing that the free group admits a certain locally invariant Hausdorff group topology. It is natural to ask if Graev's locally invariant topology is the free topological group topology. If X has the discrete topology, the answer is clearly in the affirmative. In 1973, Morris-Thompson [6] showed that if X is not totally disconnected then the answer is negative. Nickolas [7] showed that this is also the case if X has any (non-trivial) convergent sequence (for example, if X is any non-discrete metric space). Recently, Fay and Smith Thomas handled the case when X has a completely regular Hausdorff quotient space which has an infinite compact subspace (or more particularly a non-trivial convergent sequence).(Fay-Smith Thomas observe that their class of spaces includes some but not all those dealt with by Morris-Thompson.)