Ambitable topological groups

A topological group is said to be ambitable if each uniformly bounded uniformly equicontinuous set of functions on the group with its right uniformity is contained in an ambit. For n=0,1,2,..., every locally aleph_n bounded topological group is either precompact or ambitable. In the familiar semigroups constructed over ambitable groups, topological centres have an effective characterization.Comment: LaTeX; 12 pages; Changes in versions 2 and 3: New Theorem 3.3 and improvements enabled by it; Changes in version 4: Corrections for Theorems 4.9 and 4.10, added 1 referenc

Compactifications of topological groups

Every topological group $G$ has some natural compactifications which can be a useful tool of studying $G$. We discuss the following constructions: (1) the greatest ambit $S(G)$ is the compactification corresponding to the algebra of all right uniformly continuous bounded functions on $G$; (2) the Roelcke compactification $R(G)$ corresponds to the algebra of functions which are both left and right uniformly continuous; (3) the weakly almost periodic compactification $W(G)$ is the envelopping compact semitopological semigroup of $G$ (`semitopological' means that the multiplication is separately continuous). The universal minimal compact $G$-space $X=M_G$ is characterized by the following properties: (1) $X$ has no proper closed $G$-invariant subsets; (2) for every compact $G$-space $Y$ there exists a $G$-map $X\to Y$. A group $G$ is extremely amenable, or has the fixed point on compacta property, if $M_G$ is a singleton. We discuss some results and questions by V. Pestov and E. Glasner on extremely amenable groups. The Roelcke compactifications were used by M. Megrelishvili to prove that $W(G)$ can be a singleton. They can be used to prove that certain groups are minimal. A topological group is minimal if it does not admit a strictly coarser Hausdorff group topology.Comment: 17 page

Categorically closed topological groups

Let $\mathcal C$ be a subcategory of the category of topologized semigroups and their partial continuous homomorphisms. An object $X$ of the category ${\mathcal C}$ is called ${\mathcal C}$-closed if for each morphism $f:X\to Y$ of the category ${\mathcal C}$ the image $f(X)$ is closed in $Y$. In the paper we detect topological groups which are $\mathcal C$-closed for the categories $\mathcal C$ whose objects are Hausdorff topological (semi)groups and whose morphisms are isomorphic topological embeddings, injective continuous homomorphisms, continuous homomorphisms, or partial continuous homomorphisms with closed domain.Comment: 26 page

Graphs, permutations and topological groups

Various connections between the theory of permutation groups and the theory of topological groups are described. These connections are applied in permutation group theory and in the structure theory of topological groups. The first draft of these notes was written for lectures at the conference Totally disconnected groups, graphs and geometry in Blaubeuren, Germany, 2007.Comment: 39 pages (The statement of Krophollers conjecture (item 4.30) has been corrected