Translation invariance Every topological group's topology is , which by definition means that if for any a \in G, left or right multiplication by this element yields a homeomorphism G \to G. This makes every topological group into a
homogeneous space. Consequently, for any a \in G and S \subseteq G, the subset S is
open (resp.
closed) in G if and only if this is true of its left translation a S := \{a s : s \in S\} and right translation S a := \{s a : s \in S\}. If \mathcal{N} is a
neighborhood basis of the identity element in a topological group G then for all x \in X, x \mathcal{N} := \{x N : N \in \mathcal{N}\} is a neighborhood basis of x in G. In particular, any group topology on a topological group is completely determined by any neighborhood basis at the identity element. If S is any subset of G and U is an open subset of G, then S U := \{s u : s \in S, u \in U\} is an open subset of G.
Symmetric neighborhoods The inversion operation g \mapsto g^{-1} on a topological group G is a homeomorphism from G to itself. A subset S \subseteq G is said to be
symmetric if S^{-1} = S, where S^{-1} := \left\{s^{-1} : s \in S\right\}. If is any subset of a topological group , then the sets , , and are symmetric. For abelian , the closure of every symmetric set is symmetric. For any neighborhood in a commutative topological group of the identity element, there exists a symmetric neighborhood of the identity element such that , where note that is necessarily a symmetric neighborhood of the identity element. Thus every topological group has a neighborhood basis at the identity element consisting of symmetric sets. If is a
locally compact commutative group, then for any neighborhood in of the identity element, there exists a symmetric relatively compact neighborhood of the identity element such that (where is symmetric as well).
Uniform space Every topological group can be viewed as a
uniform space in two ways; the
left uniformity turns all left multiplications into uniformly continuous maps while the
right uniformity turns all right multiplications into uniformly continuous maps. If is not abelian, then these two need not coincide. The uniform structures allow one to talk about notions such as
completeness,
uniform continuity and
uniform convergence on topological groups.
Separation properties If is an open subset of a commutative topological group and contains a compact set , then there exists a neighborhood of the identity element such that . As a uniform space, every commutative topological group is
completely regular. Consequently, for a multiplicative topological group with identity element 1, the following are equivalent: is a T0-space (
Kolmogorov); is a T2-space (
Hausdorff); is a T3 (
Tychonoff); {{math|{ 1 } }} is closed in ; {{math|{ 1 } :
N}}, where is a neighborhood basis of the identity element in ; for any x \in G such that x \neq 1, there exists a neighborhood in of the identity element such that x \not\in U. A subgroup of a commutative topological group is discrete if and only if it has an
isolated point. If is not Hausdorff, then one can obtain a Hausdorff group by passing to the quotient group , where is the
closure of the identity. This is equivalent to taking the
Kolmogorov quotient of .
Metrisability Let G be a topological group. As with any topological space, we say that G is
metrisable if and only if there exists a metric d on G, which induces the same topology on G. A metric d on G is called •
left-invariant (resp.
right-invariant) if and only if d(ax_{1},ax_{2})=d(x_{1},x_{2})(resp. d(x_{1}a,x_{2}a)=d(x_{1},x_{2})) for all a,x_{1},x_{2}\in G (equivalently, d is left-invariant just in case the map x \mapsto ax is an
isometry from (G,d) to itself for each a \in G). •
proper if and only if all open balls, B(r)=\{g \in G \mid d(g,\mathbf 1) for r>0, are pre-compact. The
Birkhoff–Kakutani theorem (named after mathematicians
Garrett Birkhoff and
Shizuo Kakutani) states that the following three conditions on a topological group G are equivalent: • G is (
Hausdorff and)
first countable (equivalently: the identity element \mathbf 1 is closed in G, and there is a countable
basis of neighborhoods for \mathbf 1 in G). • G is
metrisable (as a topological space). • There is a left-invariant metric on G that induces the given topology on G. • There is a right-invariant metric on G that induces the given topology on G. Furthermore, the following are equivalent for any topological group G: • G is a
second countable locally compact (Hausdorff) space. • G is a
Polish,
locally compact (Hausdorff) space. • G is properly
metrisable (as a topological space). • There is a left-invariant, proper metric on G that induces the given topology on G.
Note: As with the rest of the article we of assume here a Hausdorff topology. The implications 4 \Rightarrow 3 \Rightarrow 2 \Rightarrow 1 hold in any topological space. In particular 3 \Rightarrow 2 holds, since in particular any properly metrisable space is a countable union of compact metrisable, and thus separable (
cf. properties of compact metric spaces), subsets. The non-trivial implication 1 \Rightarrow 4 was first proved by Raimond Struble in 1974. An alternative approach was made by
Uffe Haagerup and Agata Przybyszewska in 2006, the idea of the which is as follows: One relies on the construction of a left-invariant metric, d_{0}, as in the case of
first countable spaces. By local compactness, closed balls of sufficiently small radii are compact, and by normalising we can assume this holds for radius 1. Closing the open ball, U, of radius 1 under multiplication yields a
clopen subgroup, H, of G, on which the metric d_{0} is proper. Since H is open and G is
second countable, the subgroup has at most countably many cosets. One now uses this sequence of cosets and the metric on H to construct a proper metric on G.
Subgroups Every
subgroup of a topological group is itself a topological group when given the
subspace topology. Every open subgroup is also closed in , since the complement of is the open set given by the union of the cosets for , which are open. If is a subgroup of , then the closure of is also a subgroup. Likewise, if is a normal subgroup of , the closure of is normal in .
Quotients and normal subgroups If is a subgroup of , the set of left
cosets with the
quotient topology is called a
homogeneous space for . The quotient map q : G \to G / H is always
open. For example, for a positive integer , the
sphere is a homogeneous space for the
rotation group in , with . A homogeneous space is Hausdorff if and only if is closed in . Partly for this reason, it is natural to concentrate on closed subgroups when studying topological groups. If is a
normal subgroup of , then the
quotient group becomes a topological group when given the quotient topology. It is Hausdorff if and only if is closed in . For example, the quotient group is isomorphic to the circle group . In any topological group, the
identity component (i.e., the
connected component containing the identity element) is a closed normal subgroup. If is the identity component and
a is any point of , then the left coset is the component of containing
a. So the collection of all left cosets (or right cosets) of in is equal to the collection of all components of . It follows that the quotient group is
totally disconnected.
Closure and compactness In any commutative topological group, the product (assuming the group is multiplicative) of a compact set and a closed set is a closed set. Furthermore, for any subsets and of , . If is a subgroup of a commutative topological group and if is a neighborhood in of the identity element such that is closed, then is closed. Every discrete subgroup of a Hausdorff commutative topological group is closed.
Isomorphism theorems The
isomorphism theorems from ordinary group theory are not always true in the topological setting. This is because a bijective homomorphism need not be an isomorphism of topological groups. For example, a native version of the first isomorphism theorem is false for topological groups: if f:G\to H is a morphism of topological groups (that is, a continuous homomorphism), it is not necessarily true that the induced homomorphism \tilde {f}:G/\ker f\to \mathrm{Im}(f) is an isomorphism of topological groups; it will be a bijective, continuous homomorphism, but it will not necessarily be a homeomorphism. In other words, it will not necessarily admit an inverse in the
category of topological groups. For example, consider the identity map from the set of real numbers equipped with the discrete topology to the set of real numbers equipped with the Euclidean topology. This is a group homomorphism, and it is continuous because any function out of a discrete space is continuous, but it is not an isomorphism of topological groups because its inverse is not continuous. There is a version of the first isomorphism theorem for topological groups, which may be stated as follows: if f : G \to H is a continuous homomorphism, then the induced homomorphism from to is an isomorphism if and only if the map is open onto its image. The third isomorphism theorem, however, is true more or less verbatim for topological groups, as one may easily check. == Hilbert's fifth problem ==