# Locally compact group

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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 locally compact and such groups have a natural measure called the Haar measure. This allows one to define integrals of Borel measurable functions on G so that standard analysis notions such as the Fourier transform and ${\displaystyle L^{p}}$ spaces can be generalized.

Mathematics includes the study of such topics as quantity, structure, space, and change.

In mathematics, a topological group is a group G together with a topology on G such that the group's binary operation and the group's inverse function are continuous functions with respect to the topology. A topological group is a mathematical object with both an algebraic structure and a topological structure. Thus, one may perform algebraic operations, because of the group structure, and one may talk about continuous functions, because of the topology.

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.

## Contents

Many of the results of finite group representation theory are proved by averaging over the group. For compact groups, modifications of these proofs yields similar results by averaging with respect to the normalized Haar integral. In the general locally compact setting, such techniques need not hold. The resulting theory is a central part of harmonic analysis. The representation theory for locally compact abelian groups is described by Pontryagin duality.

In abstract algebra, a finite group is a group, of which the underlying set contains a finite number of elements.

In the mathematical field of representation theory, group representations describe abstract groups in terms of linear transformations of vector spaces; in particular, they can be used to represent group elements as matrices so that the group operation can be represented by matrix multiplication. Representations of groups are important because they allow many group-theoretic problems to be reduced to problems in linear algebra, which is well understood. They are also important in physics because, for example, they describe how the symmetry group of a physical system affects the solutions of equations describing that system.

Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the representation of functions or signals as the superposition of basic waves, and the study of and generalization of the notions of Fourier series and Fourier transforms. In the past two centuries, it has become a vast subject with applications in areas as diverse as number theory, representation theory, signal processing, quantum mechanics, tidal analysis and neuroscience.

## Examples and counterexamples

• Any compact group is locally compact.
• In particular the circle group T of complex numbers of unit modulus under multiplication is compact, and as such locally compact. The circle group historically served as the first topologically nontrivial group to also have the property of local compactness, and as such motivated the search for the more general theory, presented here.
• Any discrete group is locally compact. The theory of locally compact groups therefore encompasses the theory of ordinary groups since any group can be given the discrete topology.
• Lie groups, which are locally Euclidean, are all locally compact groups.
• A Hausdorff topological vector space is locally compact if and only if it is finite-dimensional.
• The additive group of rational numbers Q is not locally compact if given the relative topology as a subset of the real numbers. It is locally compact if given the discrete topology.
• The additive group of p-adic numbers Qp is locally compact for any prime number p.

In mathematics, a compact (topological) group is a topological group whose topology is compact. Compact groups are a natural generalization of finite groups with the discrete topology and have properties that carry over in significant fashion. Compact groups have a well-understood theory, in relation to group actions and representation theory.

In mathematics, a discrete subgroup of a topological group G is a subgroup H such that there is an open cover of G in which every open subset contains exactly one element of H; in other words, the subspace topology of H in G is the discrete topology. For example, the integers, Z, form a discrete subgroup of the reals, R, but the rational numbers, Q, do not. A discrete group is a topological group G equipped with the discrete topology.

In mathematics, a Lie group is a group that is also a differentiable manifold, with the property that the group operations are smooth. Lie groups are named after Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie, who laid the foundations of the theory of continuous transformation groups.

## Properties

By homogeneity, local compactness of the underlying space for a topological group need only be checked at the identity. That is, a group G is a locally compact space if and only if the identity element has a compact neighborhood. It follows that there is a local base of compact neighborhoods at every point.

In mathematics, and more specifically in general topology, compactness is a property that generalizes the notion of a subset of Euclidean space being closed and bounded. Examples include a closed interval, a rectangle, or a finite set of points. This notion is defined for more general topological spaces than Euclidean space in various ways.

A topological group is Hausdorff if and only if the trivial one-element subgroup is closed.

Every closed subgroup of a locally compact group is locally compact. (The closure condition is necessary as the group of rationals demonstrates.) Conversely, every locally compact subgroup of a Hausdorff group is closed. Every quotient of a locally compact group is locally compact. The product of a family of locally compact groups is locally compact if and only if all but a finite number of factors are actually compact.

In geometry, topology, and related branches of mathematics, a closed set is a set whose complement is an open set. In a topological space, a closed set can be defined as a set which contains all its limit points. In a complete metric space, a closed set is a set which is closed under the limit operation.

In group theory, a branch of mathematics, given a group G under a binary operation ∗, a subset H of G is called a subgroup of G if H also forms a group under the operation ∗. More precisely, H is a subgroup of G if the restriction of ∗ to H × H is a group operation on H. This is usually denoted HG, read as "H is a subgroup of G".

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 the group structure. For example, the cyclic group of addition modulo n can be obtained from the integers by identifying elements that differ by a multiple of n and defining a group structure that operates on each such class as a single entity. It is part of the mathematical field known as group theory.

Topological groups are always completely regular as topological spaces. Locally compact groups have the stronger property of being normal.

In topology and related branches of mathematics, a normal space is a topological space X that satisfies Axiom T4: every two disjoint closed sets of X have disjoint open neighborhoods. A normal Hausdorff space is also called a T4 space. These conditions are examples of separation axioms and their further strengthenings define completely normal Hausdorff spaces, or T5 spaces, and perfectly normal Hausdorff spaces, or T6 spaces.

Every locally compact group which is second-countable is metrizable as a topological group (i.e. can be given a left-invariant metric compatible with the topology) and complete.

In a Polish group G, the σ-algebra of Haar null sets satisfies the countable chain condition if and only if G is locally compact. [1]

## Locally compact abelian groups

For any locally compact abelian (LCA) group A, the group of continuous homomorphisms

Hom(A, S1)

from A to the circle group is again locally compact. Pontryagin duality asserts that this functor induces an equivalence of categories

LCAop LCA.

This functor exchanges several properties of topological groups. For example, finite groups correspond to finite groups, compact groups correspond to discrete groups, and metrisable groups correspond to countable unions of compact groups (and vice versa in all statements).

LCA groups form an exact category, with admissible monomorphisms being closed subgroups and admissible epimorphisms being topological quotient maps. It is therefore possible to consider the K-theory spectrum of this category. Clausen (2017) has shown that it measures the difference between the algebraic K-theory of Z and R, the integers and the reals, respectively, in the sense that there is a homotopy fiber sequence

K(Z) K(R) K(LCA).

## Related Research Articles

In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space, separated space or T2 space is a topological space where for any two distinct points there exists a neighbourhood of each which is disjoint from the neighbourhood of the other. Of the many separation axioms that can be imposed on a topological space, the "Hausdorff condition" (T2) is the most frequently used and discussed. It implies the uniqueness of limits of sequences, nets, and filters.

In mathematics, profinite groups are topological groups that are in a certain sense assembled from finite groups. They share many properties with their finite quotients: for example, both Lagrange's theorem and the Sylow theorems generalise well to profinite groups.

This is a glossary of some terms used in the branch of mathematics known as topology. Although there is no absolute distinction between different areas of topology, the focus here is on general topology. The following definitions are also fundamental to algebraic topology, differential topology and geometric topology.

In mathematics, a topological vector space is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis. A topological vector space is a vector space which is also a topological space, thereby admitting a notion of continuity. More specifically, its topological space has a uniform topological structure, allowing a notion of uniform convergence.

In mathematics, general topology is the branch of topology that deals with the basic set-theoretic definitions and constructions used in topology. It is the foundation of most other branches of topology, including differential topology, geometric topology, and algebraic topology. Another name for general topology is point-set topology.

In mathematics, specifically in harmonic analysis and the theory of topological groups, Pontryagin duality explains the general properties of the Fourier transform on locally compact abelian groups, such as , the circle, or finite cyclic groups. The Pontryagin duality theorem itself states that locally compact abelian groups identify naturally with their bidual.

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 a space is sometimes called an indiscrete space or codiscrete space. Intuitively, this has the consequence that all points of the space are "lumped together" and cannot be distinguished by topological means; it belongs to a pseudometric space in which the distance between any two points is zero.

In the mathematical discipline of general topology, a Polish space is a separable completely metrizable topological space; that is, a space homeomorphic to a complete metric space that has a countable dense subset. Polish spaces are so named because they were first extensively studied by Polish topologists and logicians—Sierpiński, Kuratowski, Tarski and others. However, Polish spaces are mostly studied today because they are the primary setting for descriptive set theory, including the study of Borel equivalence relations. Polish spaces are also a convenient setting for more advanced measure theory, in particular in probability theory.

In mathematics, an amenable group is a locally compact topological group G carrying a kind of averaging operation on bounded functions that is invariant under translation by group elements. The original definition, in terms of a finitely additive invariant measure on subsets of G, was introduced by John von Neumann in 1929 under the German name "messbar" in response to the Banach–Tarski paradox. In 1949 Mahlon M. Day introduced the English translation "amenable", apparently as a pun on "mean".

In topology, a compactly generated space is a topological space whose topology is coherent with the family of all compact subspaces. Specifically, a topological space X is compactly generated if it satisfies the following condition:

In mathematics, the spectrum of a C*-algebra or dual of a C*-algebraA, denoted Â, is the set of unitary equivalence classes of irreducible *-representations of A. A *-representation π of A on a Hilbert space H is irreducible if, and only if, there is no closed subspace K different from H and {0} which is invariant under all operators π(x) with xA. We implicitly assume that irreducible representation means non-null irreducible representation, thus excluding trivial representations on one-dimensional spaces. As explained below, the spectrum Â is also naturally a topological space; this is similar to the notion of the spectrum of a ring.

In topology and related areas of mathematics a topological property or topological invariant is a property of a topological space which is invariant under homeomorphisms. That is, a property of spaces is a topological property if whenever a space X possesses that property every space homeomorphic to X possesses that property. Informally, a topological property is a property of the space that can be expressed using open sets.

In mathematics, a covering group of a topological group H is a covering space G of H such that G is a topological group and the covering map p : GH is a continuous group homomorphism. The map p is called the covering homomorphism. A frequently occurring case is a double covering group, a topological double cover in which H has index 2 in G; examples include the Spin groups, Pin groups, and metaplectic groups.

In topology, a branch of mathematics, a topological manifold is a topological space which locally resembles real n-dimensional space in a sense defined below. Topological manifolds form an important class of topological spaces with applications throughout mathematics. All manifolds are topological manifolds by definition, but many manifolds may be equipped with additional structure. When the phrase "topological manifold" is used, it is usually done to emphasize that the manifold does not have any additional structure, or that only the "underlying" topological manifold is being considered. Every manifold has an "underlying" topological manifold, gotten by simply "forgetting" any additional structure the manifold has.

In mathematics, a higher (-dimensional) local field is an important example of a complete discrete valuation field. Such fields are also sometimes called multi-dimensional local fields.

In mathematics, a locally profinite group is a Hausdorff topological group in which every neighborhood of the identity element contains a compact open subgroup. Equivalently, a locally profinite group is a topological group that is Hausdorff, locally compact, and totally disconnected. Moreover, a locally profinite group is compact if and only if it is profinite; this explains the terminology. Basic examples of locally profinite groups are discrete groups and p-adic Lie group. Non-examples are real Lie groups which have no small subgroup property.

## References

1. Slawomir Solecki (1996) On Haar Null Sets, Fundamenta Mathematicae 149
• Folland, Gerald B. (1995), A Course in Abstract Harmonic Analysis, CRC Press, ISBN   978-0-8493-8490-5 .
• Clausen, Dustin (2017), A K-theoretic approach to Artin maps, arXiv: