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

On subgroups of minimal topological groups

A topological group is minimal if it does not admit a strictly coarser Hausdorff group topology. The Roelcke uniformity (or lower uniformity) on a topological group is the greatest lower bound of the left and right uniformities. A group is Roelcke-precompact if it is precompact with respect to the Roelcke uniformity. Many naturally arising non-Abelian topological groups are Roelcke-precompact and hence have a natural compactification. We use such compactifications to prove that some groups of isometries are minimal. In particular, if U_1 is the Urysohn universal metric space of diameter 1, the group Iso(U_1) of all self-isometries of U_1 is Roelcke-precompact, topologically simple and minimal. We also show that every topological group is a subgroup of a minimal topologically simple Roelcke-precompact group of the form Iso(M), where M is an appropriate non-separable version of the Urysohn space.Comment: To appear in Topology and its Applications. 39 page

On a stronger reconstruction notion for monoids and clones

Motivated by reconstruction results by Rubin, we introduce a new reconstruction notion for permutation groups, transformation monoids and clones, called automatic action compatibility, which entails automatic homeomorphicity. We further give a characterization of automatic homeomorphicity for transformation monoids on arbitrary carriers with a dense group of invertibles having automatic homeomorphicity. We then show how to lift automatic action compatibility from groups to monoids and from monoids to clones under fairly weak assumptions. We finally employ these theorems to get automatic action compatibility results for monoids and clones over several well-known countable structures, including the strictly ordered rationals, the directed and undirected version of the random graph, the random tournament and bipartite graph, the generic strictly ordered set, and the directed and undirected versions of the universal homogeneous Henson graphs.Comment: 29 pp; Changes v1-->v2::typos corr.|L3.5+pf extended|Rem3.7 added|C. Pech found out that arg of L5.3-v1 solved Probl2-v1|L5.3, C5.4, Probl2 of v1 removed|C5.2, R5.4 new, contain parts of pf of L5.3-v1|L5.2-v1 is now L5.3,merged with concl of C5.4-v1,L5.3-v2 extends C5.4-v1|abstract, intro updated|ref[24] added|part of L5.3-v1 is L2.1(e)-v2, another part merged with pf of L5.2-v1 => L5.3-v