The Tubby Torus as a Quotient Group

Let E be any metrizable nuclear locally convex space and E ^ the Pontryagin dual group of E. Then the topological group E ^ has the tubby torus (that is, the countably infinite product of copies of the circle group) as a quotient group if and only if E does not have the weak topology. This extends results in the literature related to the Banach–Mazur separable quotient problem.

Observations on the Separable Quotient Problem for Banach Spaces

The longstanding Banach–Mazur separable quotient problem asks whether every infinite-dimensional Banach space has a quotient (Banach) space that is both infinite-dimensional and separable. Although it remains open in general, an affirmative answer is known in many special cases, including (1) reflexive Banach spaces, (2) weakly compactly generated (WCG) spaces, and (3) Banach spaces which are dual spaces. Obviously (1) is a special case of both (2) and (3), but neither (2) nor (3) is a special case of the other. A more general result proved here includes all three of these cases. More precisely, we call an infinite-dimensional Banach space X dual-like, if there is another Banach space E, a continuous linear operator T from the dual space E * onto a dense subspace of X, such that the closure of the kernel of T (in the relative weak* topology) has infinite codimension in E * . It is shown that every dual-like Banach space has an infinite-dimensional separable quotient.

A REMARK ON THE SEPARABLE QUOTIENT PROBLEM FOR TOPOLOGICAL GROUPS

The Banach–Mazur separable quotient problem asks whether every infinite-dimensional Banach space $B$ has a quotient space that is an infinite-dimensional separable Banach space. The question has remained open for over 80 years, although an affirmative answer is known in special cases such as when $B$ is reflexive or even a dual of a Banach space. Very recently, it has been shown to be true for dual-like spaces. An analogous problem for topological groups is: Does every infinite-dimensional (in the topological sense) connected (Hausdorff) topological group $G$ have a quotient topological group that is infinite dimensional and metrisable? While this is known to be true if $G$ is the underlying topological group of an infinite-dimensional Banach space, it is shown here to be false even if $G$ is the underlying topological group of an infinite-dimensional locally convex space. Indeed, it is shown that the free topological vector space on any countably infinite $k_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$-space is an infinite-dimensional toplogical vector space which does not have any quotient topological group that is infinite dimensional and metrisable. By contrast, the Graev free abelian topological group and the Graev free topological group on any infinite connected Tychonoff space, both of which are connected topological groups, are shown here to have the tubby torus $\mathbb{T}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$, which is an infinite-dimensional metrisable group, as a quotient group.

Separability of Topological Groups: A Survey with Open Problems

Separability is one of the basic topological properties. Most classical topological groups and Banach spaces are separable; as examples we mention compact metric groups, matrix groups, connected (finite-dimensional) Lie groups; and the Banach spaces C ( K ) for metrizable compact spaces K; and ℓ p , for p ≥ 1 . This survey focuses on the wealth of results that have appeared in recent years about separable topological groups. In this paper, the property of separability of topological groups is examined in the context of taking subgroups, finite or infinite products, and quotient homomorphisms. The open problem of Banach and Mazur, known as the Separable Quotient Problem for Banach spaces, asks whether every Banach space has a quotient space which is a separable Banach space. This paper records substantial results on the analogous problem for topological groups. Twenty open problems are included in the survey.