Is the image of a locally compact totally disconnected group also locally compact and totally disconnected? [duplicate]
Is the image of a locally compact totally disconnected group also locally compact and totally disconnected? [duplicate]
This question already has an answer here:
Let $G$ be a locally compact totally disconnected group and let $phi$ be a surjective homomorphism from $Gto H$ (added later: where $H$ has the topology coinduced by $phi$). Is H also locally compact and totally disconnected? If not is there a homomorphism from such a group to a Lie group?
More generally what happens if we remove local compactness? Is total disconnectedness still preserved
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Or you can take $H$ to be a single point and $phi$ trivial...
– Arturo Magidin
Aug 30 at 2:26
@ArturoMagidin using trivial $H$ is not a counterexample, since the trivial group with its only possible topology is totally disconnected (its only connected subsets are points).
– KConrad
Aug 30 at 3:12
Downvoting until the OP clarifies what was actually intended, given that the stated question has a trivial/silly counterexample
– Yemon Choi
Aug 30 at 11:42
This question is fully answered here: mathoverflow.net/a/290157/89334 where in particular an example of a (Hausdorff) totally disconnected group with a (Hausdorff) connected quotient is given.
– Uri Bader
Sep 1 at 16:05
3 Answers
3
The quotient group $H$ will be totally disconnected and locally compact if it is Hausdorff (or at least $T_1$) and $H$ inherits the quotient topology.
Let $phi: Gto H$ be a surjective homomorphism of Hausdorff topological groups, $G$ locally compact and totally disconnected. Let $1, h in H$, and $1in U, hnotin U$, $U subset H$ an open subset. Then $phi^-1(U)$ is an open subset of $G$, saturated by cosets of the closed normal subgroup $phi^-1(1)= N lhd G$. Then $1in G$ has a basis of clopen subgroup neighborhoods, so we can find $C < G$ clopen with $C subset phi^-1(U)$. Then $Ccdot N subset phi^-1(U)$ is an open subgroup, hence $Ccdot N$ is closed (the union of its non-trivial cosets is an open complement). Moreover $phi$ is an open map, and $1 in phi(C), hin phi(G-Ccdot N)$ are clopen sets separating $1$ from $h$. Hence $H$ is totally disconnected.
On the other hand, if $H$ is not Hausdorff, then it might be connected. For example, $mathbbZ_p/mathbbZ$ has the trivial quotient topology, since $
mathbbZ$ is dense. Usually topological groups are required to be Hausdorff, so I'm not sure if you were allowing this pathology.
No [Update: well, the answer was no to the original question, but the OP later without comment edited the question in a way that invalidates this answer.] . Let $mu_p^infty$ be the group of $p$th-power roots of unity in $mathbf C^times$, with the topology it gets as a subset of $mathbf C^times$. This group is not locally compact, since there is no compact neighborhood of 1 in $mu_p^infty$: a nonempty compact Hausdorff space without isolated points is uncountable, while the full group $mu_p^infty$ is countable. We'll show $mu_p^infty$ with its topology inside $mathbf C^times$ is the image of $mathbf Q_p$ under a continuous homomorphism.
Set $chi colon mathbf Q_p rightarrow mu_p^infty$ by
$chi(x) = e^2pi ix_p$, where $x_p$ is the $p$-adic fractional part of the $p$-adic number $x$. This $chi$ is a homomorphism with kernel $mathbf Z_p$, which is open in $mathbf Q_p$, so $chi$ is locally constant on $mathbf Q_p$ and thus is continuous. It is surjective since for $0 leq a < p^n$ we have $e^2pi i a/p^n = chi(a/p^n)$.
Remark: as abstract groups $mu_p^infty cong mathbf Q_p/mathbf Z_p$, but as topological groups they are not the same since $mathbf Q_p/mathbf Z_p$ (with its quotient topology) has the discrete topology. The group $mathbf Q_p/mathbf Z_p$ with its discrete topology is locally compact and totally disconnected, so that would not provide a counterexample for your question.
This is a special instance of the general principle commented above by @Yemon Choi.
– Uri Bader
Sep 1 at 16:09
After some fiddling I agree this does fit Yemon's scenario: replacing the domain of $chi$ with its quotient by the kernel equipped with the quotient topology, the domain becomes $mathbf Q_p/mathbf Z_p$ as a discrete group.
– KConrad
Sep 2 at 1:38
A rather trivial counterexample: Take $H$ to be your favourite topological group that fails to be locally compact and/or totally disconnected; take $G$ to be $H$ with the discrete topology. Then $G$ is locally compact and totally disconnected (any discrete space is both), and the identity function $G to H$ is a continuous surjective homomorphism.
So in sum: Neither local compactness nor total disconnectedness is preserved under images, either separately or together.
Edit: I notice after posting that Yemon Choi already posted this in comments; but since it answers the question, I’ll leave this up unless Yemon would prefer to make it an answer himself.
Thanks Peter. TBH I was hoping that the OP would amend and am a bit surprised that several users have seen fit to give elaborate answers when there was a trivial counterexample.
– Yemon Choi
Aug 30 at 11:41
@YemonChoi and my elaborate answer wasn't even right ...
– Nik Weaver
Aug 30 at 12:52
I think you are missing some conditions to pin down the examples/scenario you have in mind. For otherwise, I can cook up silly counterexamples as follows: take $H$ to be your favourite topological group, and then take $G$ to be $H$ equipped with the discrete topology.
– Yemon Choi
Aug 30 at 2:02